Department for Transport

Electric Vehicles: Charging Points

Stephanie Peacock: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the cost to the public purse is for electric vehicle charging infrastructure through grants from the Office of Low Emissions Vehicles' in, (a) Barnsley, (b) South Yorkshire, (c) Yorkshire and the Humber and (d) the UK in each year since 2010.

Michael Ellis: Information on the distribution of total costs to the public purse of all current charging infrastructure grants and competitions from the Office of Low Emissions Vehicles for the requested areas is set out below: Workplace Charging Scheme  a) Barnsleyb) South Yorkshirec) Yorkshire and the Humberd) UK2017£1,200£1,200£9,900£101,4002018£12,000£23,700£79,100£742,4002019*£0£15,500£55,000£449,000 *figure for 2019 up to the start of April. Electric Vehicle Homecharge Scheme.  a) Barnsleyb) South Yorkshirec) Yorkshire and the Humberd) UKSeptember 2014£3,498£9,738£89,409£1,407,5632015£12,600£95,900£262,982£3,924,3832016£24,887£122,887£582,937£7,458,2242017£22,500£136,900£678,732£8,943,6242018£31,000£167,500£758,799£10,423,7242019*£6,500£28,000£168,500£2,360,240 *figure for 2019 up to the start of April.  Competitions: Barnsley: Total: £0ULEV Taxi Infrastructure Scheme: NilLow Emission Bus Scheme: NilUltra-Low Emission Bus Scheme: NilGo Ultra Low City Scheme: Nil South Yorkshire: Total: £1.808mULEV Taxi Infrastructure Scheme: Sheffield City Council awarded £488k.Low Emission Bus Scheme: Sheffield City Region Combined Authority awarded £1.32m; Ultra-Low Emission Bus Scheme: NilGo Ultra Low City Scheme: Nil Yorkshire and the Humber: Total: £12.755mULEV Taxi Infrastructure Scheme: Sheffield City Council awarded £488k;WYCA awarded £1.98m.Low Emission Bus Scheme:City of York awarded £3.3m.Sheffield City Region Combined Authority awarded £1.32m;Transdev Blazefield awarded £2.25m. West Yorkshire Combined Authority (WYCA) awarded £234k.Ultra-Low Emission Bus Scheme: First West Yorkshire awarded £1.75m;WYCA awarded £617k;Go Ultra Low City Scheme: City of York awarded £816k. UK: Total: £160mULEV Taxi Infrastructure Scheme: £20.8mLow Emission Bus Scheme: £42mUltra-Low Emission Bus Scheme: £48mGo Ultra Low City Scheme: £40mLondon chargepoint Scheme: £10m

Railways: Carbon Emissions

Andy McDonald: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if it is his policy that the rail (a) network and (b) supply chain will be net carbon neutral by 2050.

Andrew Jones: The government has set an ambitious legally binding target to reach net zero-greenhouse gas emissions from the UK by 2050. The rail industry must play a major role in achieving this commitment.

Cycling and Walking

Paul Farrelly: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether the Government remains on track to achieve its walking and cycling targets.

Michael Ellis: The Government’s aims, objectives and targets for walking and cycling are set out in the statutory 2017 Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy. The Department will be reporting to Parliament later this year on the progress that has been made towards meeting each of these, once the latest official statistics on rates of cycling and walking are published in the summer.

Large Goods Vehicles: EU Countries

Neil O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate he has made of the number of commercial vehicle operators that will require European Conference of Ministers of Transport permits to transport goods to the (a) EU and (b) EEA countries in the event that the UK leaves the EU without a deal; and how many operators have applied for those permits in the last 12 months.

Michael Ellis: If the UK leaves the EU without a deal, the EU has agreed a regulation on basic road connectivity that guarantees rights for UK hauliers to continue providing services between the UK and the EU. As it stands, the Regulation would come into effect were the UK to leave the EU without a deal, and would last until 31 December 2019 meaning that most haulage trips to EU or EEA countries will not be affected.A small proportion of operators may require ECMT permits for transit to non-EU/EEA countries during November and December 2019. . However, the Government does not intend to rely on ECMT permits after we leave the EU as we would be working with Member States to agree bilateral arrangements. Many old bilateral agreements would become reinstated if we leave without a deal, and we are confident that other bilaterals will be agreed swiftly, given it is in the interest of both sides for freight to continue to flow.2,143 UK goods vehicle operator’s licence holders applied for a total of 11,974 European Conference of Ministers of Transport annual permits in the last twelve months.

Driving: Licensing

Neil O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many people applied for an international driving licence in each month in each of the last five years.

Michael Ellis: Monthly information on the number of international driving permits is only available from February 2019 and is shown below:MonthIDPs issuedFebruary65,923March282,398April163,274May43,555June28,570 Prior to February 2019, the AA, RAC and the Post Office issued IDPs. Collectively they issued around 100,000 IDPs annually.

Driving: Licensing

Neil O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many and what proportion of UK driving licence holders have an international driving licence.

Michael Ellis: Between 1 February 2019 and 30 June 2019, the Post Office issued 583,720 IDPs on behalf of the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency. This represents 1.12% of the 48 million GB driving licence holders. Prior to February 2019, the AA, RAC and the Post Office issued IDPs. Collectively they issued around 100,000 IDPs annually, and some of these would still be valid.

Driving Tests

Douglas Chapman: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many driving test centres have closed in each constituency in each of the last five years.

Michael Ellis: The attached table shows the number of driving test centres, which conducted practical car tests that closed in each of the last five years, and the constituencies that were affected. In all cases where the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency has closed a test centre it has continued to provide a testing service provision to its customers. 30 of the closed test centres were relocated and re-opened at another location within the service standard travel distance criteria. 19 of the closed test centres merged with another test centre. 



Table of no of driving test centre closures 
(Word Document, 14.84 KB)

Cycling and Walking

Dr David Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether he plans to include (a) horse-riding and (b) horse-drawn carriages in his Department's support for the development of active travel and local walking and cycling infrastructure plans.

Michael Ellis: The Government’s Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plan Guidance notes that local authorities should consider the needs of equestrians where they have access to walking and cycling infrastructure such as off-carriageway routes. However, the Government does not intend to specify that all measures to support active travel must include a horse-riding or horse drawn carriage element: decisions on this are a matter for local authorities. Nevertheless the Government does encourage local authorities to support equestrians in their active travel plans.

Cycling

Dr David Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent estimate he has made of the number of regular cyclists in (a) Stroud constituency, (b) Gloucestershire, and (c) England.

Michael Ellis: The Government’s Active Lives Survey, carried out annually by Sport England, suggests that in the period from mid-November 2016 to mid-November 2017, 13.6% of adults cycled at least once a week within Stroud District Council; 14.7% cycled at least once a week in Gloucestershire; and 11.9% cycled at least once a week in England. The survey includes any cycling, irrespective of trip length or purpose, and results are grouped according to the area where respondents live, which may not be the same as the area where they walk or cycle.

Road Traffic Offences: Foreign Nationals

Toby Perkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many motoring offences were committed in the UK by foreign nationals based overseas that did not lead to a conviction in each of the last three years.

Michael Ellis: Statistics on motoring offences and convictions for England and Wales are available in the Ministry of Justice motoring data tool. Information on nationality and country of residence is not held in the central database on prosecutions and convictions.

Railways: Electrification

Mr Gavin Shuker: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what proportion of rail passenger journeys take place (a) wholly and (b) for at least 50 per cent of the journey by distance on electrified sections of the railway network in Great Britain.

Andrew Jones: The Office of Rail and Road publishes data on electrified rail routes in Great Britain. However, this includes routes open to passengers and freight and does not contain a breakdown for passengers only.The length of network rail operated electrified route in Great Britain was 3,583 miles in 2017-18. This represents 36% of the total mainline railway route.This data is available at the following link:https://dataportal.orr.gov.uk/displayreport/report/html/c35e0c28-324f-4168-81b9-be197963f251

Electric Vehicles: Charging Points

Mr Gavin Shuker: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many publicly available charge-points for electric vehicles there were in (a) Luton, (b) Bedfordshire and (c) the East of England in each year since 2010.

Michael Ellis: The Government does not have figures on the total number of publicly available electric vehicle chargepoints. Members of the public and businesses are able to install chargepoints without government support, and information on these are not routinely collected. As at 10th July 2019 the private sector charging point platform Zap-map reported that there are 1,607 in the East of England. Figures for Luton and Bedfordshire are not currently available.

Driving Offences: British Nationals Abroad

Mr Gavin Shuker: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what support his Department plans to provide to UK nationals accused of (a) driving offences and (b) exceeding the speed limit when driving their UK-registered vehicle in the EU in the event that the UK leaves the EU without a deal.

Chris Grayling: All UK nationals must be aware and obey the local traffic laws of the country they are in when driving abroad. Information is available on www.gov.uk which we would urge drivers to read before they travel. If unsure, drivers can also refer to other sites or seek information from recognised driving associations or automobile clubs. The need to be aware and abide with the laws of another country is unaffected by any arrangements to leave the EU. The Government does not currently provide legal support or advice to UK nationals accused of a traffic offence abroad and there are no plans to provide legal support or advice in the future.

Transport: Exhaust Emissions

Dr David Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate his Department has made of the total emissions from the transport sector of (a) PM2.5, (b) PM1 and (c) PM0.1 in the last three years for which data is available.

Michael Ellis: Figures for the emissions of Particulate Matter (PM) from domestic transport of (a) 2.5 micrometres or less, (b) 1 micrometre or less, and (c) 0.1 micrometres or less for the years 2015 to 2017 are in the table below. Table 1. Final emissions of PM2.5, PM1, and PM0.1 from domestic transport for the years 2015, 2016, and 2017 in kilotonnes. Source: (NAEI).Particle Size201520162017PM2.518.417.716.9PM110.810.19.3PM0.15.34.94.5

Shipping: Exhaust Emissions

Andy McDonald: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what level of funding is available to support his Department's Clean Maritime Plan.

Ms Nusrat Ghani: Last week I was pleased to announce that to help enable the delivery of the ambitions of the Clean Maritime Plan, the Government is supporting Maritime Research and Innovation UK (MarRI-UK) in launching an innovation call of £1m called the Clean Maritime Innovation Call, which will open this summer. The Clean Maritime Innovation Call aims to fund technology and innovations which have the potential to unlock reductions of air quality pollutants and/or greenhouse gases from the maritime sector.

Merchant Navy Day: Flags

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if the Government will recognise Merchant Navy Day as an official UK flag-flying day.

Ms Nusrat Ghani: As it has done since 2000, the Department for Transport will fly the Red Ensign flag on Merchant Navy Day. Number 10 Downing Street also flies the Red Ensign flag yearly on 3rd September. I will be writing to other Departments to encourage them to follow our and Number 10’s lead in flying the Red Ensign flag on Merchant Navy Day in the centenary year of our Merchant Navy.

Bus Services

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps the Government is taking to incentivise more people to use bus services.

Ms Nusrat Ghani: Local bus journeys remain central to transport choices, accounting for around 55% of all public transport journeys. The Bus Services Act 2017 provides the tools local authorities need such as Enhanced Partnerships and Franchising to improve local bus services and increase passenger numbers. We are pioneering technology, like our forthcoming Bus Open Data Digital Service, to overhaul bus services across England and give passengers the information they need to travel with confidence.

London Underground

Theresa Villiers: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, which areas of land around (a) High Barnet, (b) Cockfosters and (c) Finchley Central underground stations are classed as operational land by Transport for London.

Michael Ellis: TfL and its subsidiaries, including LUL, own operational land for facilities such as stations, track and sidings vital for running its railway and tramway services. Under the GLA Act 1999, land is deemed to be operational if it used to carry on any railway or tramway undertaking of TfL (or one of its subsidiaries), and if an interest is held in the land for that purpose. The Department for Transport does not keep records of which land is considered to be operational.

Railways: Surveys

Dame Cheryl Gillan: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when his Department will update the National Rail Travel Overview Survey Report.

Andrew Jones: The Department is currently considering updating the National Rail Travel Survey, and will reach a decision in due course.

Severn Tunnel

Dr David Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what contingencies are in place for a complete structural failure of the Severn Tunnel.

Andrew Jones: The structure of the Severn Tunnel is maintained by Network Rail. In line with all structures on the route, it is inspected annually with a detailed survey carried out every six years. Established maintenance plans are in place to maintain the condition of the track. Network Rail are confident that the tunnel remains structurally sound and they consider the risk of a complete structural failure to be very unlikely.

Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

Whirlpool Corporation: Tumble Dryers

Gill Furniss: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, for what reason he decided to issue a recall notice to Whirlpool in relation to that company's tumble driers; and if he will make a statement.

Kelly Tolhurst: Holding answer received on 20 June 2019



The Office for Product Safety and Standards’ (OPSS) actions have been driven by a commitment to ensure public safety. On 4 June, OPSS issued a letter of intent to serve a recall notice. As a result, Whirlpool is instigating a full recall of unmodified, affected tumble dryers. The House was updated of this action in a written ministerial statement on 10 July.

Supermarkets: Conditions of Employment

Kerry McCarthy: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment the he has made of the merits of the application of Oxfam’s supermarket scorecard on human suffering in global supply chains for his Department’s policies.

Kerry McCarthy: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps he is taking to support supermarkets to publish a human rights strategy for workers in the food supply chain in the UK.

Kerry McCarthy: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps the Government has taken in the last year to help ensure women workers in the supermarket food supply chain are treated fairly.

Kelly Tolhurst: The Government welcomes campaigns such as Oxfam’s ‘Behind the Price’ with the supermarket scorecard that is a part of it and which includes scores for the fair treatment of women. The Government recognises the positive competitive environment which benchmarks of this type help to create, whereby businesses aim to be at the top of an annual ranking. At the same time, such benchmarks enable consumers, investors, civil society and regulators to challenge those businesses who could improve, using this evidence base. The retail sector recognises it has a responsibility on these issues and is pioneering responsible sourcing practices. The Government welcomes industry initiatives in this context such as the British Retail Consortium’s ‘Better Retail, Better World’. The Government is determined to eliminate exploitation of workers in the food supply chain in the UK. The Modern Slavery Act 2015 increased specialist support for victims and it requires businesses to be transparent about their supply chains. The Government response to the independent review of the legislation will set out how it intends to strengthen this approach further.

Business: Northern Ireland

Mr Gregory Campbell: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, with reference to the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in April 2018 in Belfast, what progress he has made in developing a business strategy for Northern Ireland after the UK leaves the EU.

Kelly Tolhurst: Holding answer received on 10 July 2019



The Government is supporting Northern Ireland business to develop and thrive. The British Business Bank has issued 1,009 loans in Northern Ireland since 2012, to an average value of £7,217 and £7,285,132 in total and we announced in May a £105 million economic package for the Derry/Londonderry region. BEIS officials have an ongoing working relationship with officials in the Northern Ireland Civil Service. However, it is essential that devolved government is restored in Northern Ireland to allow for local decision-making and to continue to strengthen the economy.

Maternity Leave

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether he has held discussions with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on extending the period of statutory maternity leave.

Kelly Tolhurst: In the UK, employed pregnant women and new mothers have a ‘day one’ right to 52 weeks of Maternity Leave; and, if eligible, they are entitled to 39 weeks of pay. The Department has no current plans to extend the period of statutory Maternity Leave, and so I have not had any discussions on this subject with my rt. hon. Friend Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer.

Employment: Bullying

Darren Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if he will bring forward legislative proposals to ban bullying in the workplace.

Kelly Tolhurst: Any form of bullying and harassment is unacceptable and has no place in today’s workplace. Current legislation provides robust safeguards for employees against harassment in the workplace. This covers harassment on the grounds of gender, race, disability, religion or believe, sexual orientation or age. The Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 and the Protection from Harrassment Act 1997 make intentional harassment a criminal offence. However, whilst it is important to have a safety net of legislation to protect employees from the worst form of abuses, the best way to address bad behaviour is through cultural change within the workplace. Employers can, for example, establish good practices through a clear anti-harassment policy and ensuring all staff receive training in this area.

Waste Heat Recovery

Dr David Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, pursuant to the Answer of 25 June 2019 to Question 266065, what assessment he has made of the implications for his Department's policies of pages 1 and 5 of the Building Research Establishment document FGHRS Data Processing Changes Relating to Canetis GasSaver GS2 Data Record held in Products Characteristics Database dated 30 October 2018 in which the BRE refers to wholesale data manipulation of third-party FGHRS test data on a case-by-case basis and a device-by-device basis.

Chris Skidmore: This paper gives the view of the Building Research Establishment on a proposed amendment to its methodology for assessing Flue Gas Heat Recovery Systems. This will be considered as part of a full review that the Department is commissioning on the methodology.

Waste Heat Recovery

Dr David Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, for what reason passive flue gas heat recovery systems technology is listed by the Building Research Establishment as under investigation.

Chris Skidmore: A label has been applied to entries for certain Flue Gas Heat Recovery Systems in the Product Characteristics Database where the entries for those products have not been calculated in full accordance with the standard Buildings Research Establishment methodology and there is a risk that such entries might materially overestimate the energy savings associated with the product. The Department is commissioning a review of the methodology for Flue Gas Heat Recovery Systems. Pending the outcome of the review, we intend to change the label to state “The SAP FGHRS methodology is currently being reviewed. This entry may change.” This label is necessary to keep all users of the database appropriately informed as they may base important decisions on the database.

Post Office: Herbert Smith Freehills

Mr Kevan Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, pursuant to the Answer of 8 July 2019 to Question 272157, in what capacity the law firm Herbert Smith Freehills is acting on behalf of Post Office Limited; and for what reason that firm was not listed in the six law firms framework agreement, as outlined in Question 272157.

Kelly Tolhurst: Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Carbon Emissions: EU Countries

Dr David Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, which EU Member States have adopted targets for zero net emissions by (a) 2050, (b) 2040, (c) another date and (d) a date not yet specified.

Chris Skidmore: The UK was the first major economy to legislate for a net zero target. The action we are taking in setting this target will continue our proud tradition of climate leadership.The EU Member States that have targets for net zero greenhouse gas emissions in legislation are Sweden (by 2045) and the United Kingdom (by 2050). France is currently in the process of legislating for a 2050 net zero greenhouse target.In addition, a range of Member States have adopted or are currently publicly considering adopting plans for net zero carbon or greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, and in some cases have stated their intention is to legislate for a target. These include Denmark, Germany, and Portugal and Finland. Other Member States with plans to significantly reduce emissions by 2050 include the Netherlands, which has a law to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 95%, and Spain, which has a draft law proposing an at least 90% reduction (in both cases the reduction is compared to 1990).The EU is also considering adopting a bloc-wide net zero 2050 target, with a large majority of Member States, including the UK, supporting a net zero EU target by 2050 at the June European Council this year. Through ratifying the Paris Agreement, the EU and its Member States have already committed to aiming for a balance between anthropogenic emissions by sources and removals by sinks of greenhouse gases in the second half of the century, as set out in Article 4.1 of the Agreement.

Artificial Intelligence: Skilled Workers

Paul Farrelly: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether his Department plans to support industry-led initiatives to close the artificial intelligence skills gap.

Chris Skidmore: The Industrial Strategy sets out the Government’s vision to make the UK a global centre for AI and data innovation, which includes developing the skills that will contribute to building the best environment for AI development and deployment. We have created the Office for AI (a joint unit between the departments: Business Energy and Industrial Strategy and Digital Culture Media and Sport) to oversee that vision.The AI Sector Deal brings together commitments from Government, Industry and Academia in a near £0.95bn package of support to promote the adoption and use of AI.To date, some of the key Government investment in AI skills and talent has included:£100m for 16 New Centres for Doctoral Training at universities across the country, delivering 1,000 new PhDs over the next 5 years;£50m of funding agreed at Autumn Budget for new prestigious AI fellowships to attract and retain the top AI talent; and£13.5m government funding to build new conversion courses to expand pathways into AI and Data specialisms as well as scholarships to improve diversityFurther, through the Government’s Office for AI, we are working with Industry and Academia to develop a new industry-funded AI Masters programme, in collaboration with the British Computer Society and the Institute of Coding. Partnerships between industry stakeholders and universities are being established that will produce the postgraduates industry partners need.The Office for AI is in regular discussion with industry and continues to welcome other initiatives aimed at increasing artificial intelligence skills in the UK.

Service Industries: Sexual Harassment

Mr Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what recent assessment he has made of trends in the level of the use of non-disclosure agreements for incidences of sexual harassment in the fast food hospitality sector.

Kelly Tolhurst: Any form of sexual harassment or discrimination in the workplace is clearly unacceptable. The Government does not accept any behaviour that causes people to feel intimidated or humiliated in the workplace. The Government has consulted on proposals to prevent the misuse of confidentiality clauses in cases of sexual harassment and discrimination. It will be publishing a response with its final proposals, in due course. We have launched a consultation on sexual harassment in the workplace led by the Government Equalities Office. This consultation welcomes suggestions of alternative interventions to prevent and better monitor cases of sexual harassment and discrimination.

Wind Power: Bats

Sir Greg Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if he will make an annual estimate of the number of bats (a) killed and (b) injured by onshore wind turbines; and if he will make a statement.

Chris Skidmore: BEIS does not produce estimates on the number of bats killed and injured by onshore wind turbines.Updated guidance is available for developers and planners to ensure that onshore wind energy developments pose minimal risk to bats. This was produced jointly by Natural England, Scottish Natural Heritage, Natural Resources Wales, RenewableUK, and others. The guidance can be accessed through the Government’s Planning Policy Guidance on Renewable & Low Carbon Energy, or directly through this link: https://www.nature.scot/bats-and-onshore-wind-turbines-survey-assessment-and-mitigation

Research: Finance

Chi Onwurah: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what account he has taken of  his Department's report entitled What is the relationship between public and private investment in R&D published July 2015 which stated  that an extra £1 of public funding would give rise to an increase in private funding of between £1.13 and £1.60 in setting policy on the relationship between public and private investment in R&D.

Chris Skidmore: I refer the hon. Member to the reply I gave her on 9 July 2019 to Question 273388.

Optoelectronics

Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how much funding has been allocated to the optoelectronics industry in the UK in each year for which figures are available.

Chris Skidmore: Our ambition is to increase total R&D investment to 2.4% of GDP by 2027, and 3% in the long term. Successive UK Governments have supported the principle that funding for basic research should be awarded through competitive processes on the basis of excellence and likely impact - as assessed through peer review.UK Research and Innovation, a partner organisation of BEIS, primarily engages with industry through Innovate UK. The table below shows the amount committed by Innovate UK to projects involving optoelectronics in each of the last 5 years. These figures focus on funds to industry and, as such, exclude funding towards research-focused partners such as academics or charities.Commitment YearGrant Offered (Commitment)2014/15£3,530,3242015/16£1,944,1122016/17£3,676,2222017/18£5,225,3302018/19£822,952Note: as this is committed funding the 2018/19 figures do not include where an offer letter has been sent but no agreement has yet been reached. As such this will not reflect the full amount of funding committed in that year. Funding for research into optoelectronics is also provided by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.

Optoelectronics

Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what recent assessment he has made of the size of the optoelectronics industry in the UK.

Chris Skidmore: Official statistics are not published to a sufficient level of detail to identify the size of the optoelectronics sector in the UK. The Government does however work closely with both the Photonics Leadership Council and the Elect-Tech Council. The Council’s “UK Photonics: The Hidden Economic Engine” identifies the UK’s significant strengths in Photonics, including optoelectronics.

Foreign and Commonwealth Office

Rockall: Fisheries

Mr Gregory Campbell: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent discussions he has had with his Irish counterpart on international fishing fleets' access to waters around Rockall.

Sir Alan Duncan: Fisheries compliance policy is a devolved competence for the Scottish Government. I have therefore not raised the matter of international fishing fleets' access to waters around Rockall with my Irish counterpart. Foreign and Commonwealth Office officials, working closely with other Government departments, including the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, remain in close contact with the Irish and Scottish Governments about this issue.

Foreign and Commonwealth Office: Interserve

Chris Stephens: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what discussions he has had with Interserve on (a) changes to its cleaners' working hours and (b) the effect of those changes on the (i) overtime payments and (ii) take-home pay of those staff; and if he will make a statement.

Dr Andrew Murrison: We are aware that Interserve is currently introducing a British Institute of Cleaning Science solution across the Foreign and Commonwealth Office's UK estate, in accordance with the requirements of the Crown Commercial Service.If a Cleaner finds the new system isn't working for them, Interserve has undertaken to discuss what reasonable adjustments can be made, while ensuring service delivery that achieves contractual requirements.

Persecution of Christians across the Globe Independent Review

Dr David Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what the evidential basis was for the downgrading of the impact of persecution of Christians in the Middle East between the the Bishop of Truro’s Independent Review for the Foreign Secretary of FCO Support for Persecuted Christians and (a) Interim and (b) Final Report.

Dr Andrew Murrison: This is an independent Review. As the Foreign Secretary has stated, the findings of the report make for harrowing reading and we are concerned about the situation for all Christians, including those in the Middle East. The report states that further evidence will be published and will be available incrementally from 15 July on the Review's website.

Iran: Baha'i Faith

Tom Brake: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what information his Department holds on reports of the closure of a Baha’i-run elder care centre in Karaj, Iran.

Dr Andrew Murrison: We are aware of reports indicating that Baha'i owned businesses are being targeted for closure, including reports of the attempted closure of a care centre in Karaj, Iran. We remain concerned about the continued harassment and mistreatment that the Baha'i and other minority groups face.We support the UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Iran's assessment that discrimination against the Baha'is in Iran is legally sanctioned by a lack of constitutional recognition and the absence of other legal protections for adherents of this faith. We regularly call upon Iran to cease harassment of all religious minorities and to fulfil its international and domestic obligations to protect freedom of religion or belief.

State Visits: USA

Jo Stevens: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how much was spent from the public purse on (a) security, (b) accommodation and (c) transport for family members of President Trump during his visit to the UK in June 2019.

Sir Alan Duncan: ​As part of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office's transparency programme, the cost of the State Visit to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office will be published on the gov.uk website before the end of the year.

USA: Detention Centres

Peter Kyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what representations he has made to his counterpart in the US Administration on the treatment of (a) child and (b) other refugees and migrants being held at detention centres on the US-Mexico border.

Sir Alan Duncan: ​We are aware of recent concerning reports describing conditions for children and other refugees and migrants in US detention facilities. The President signed a Bill on 1 July providing emergency funding, including humanitarian support, in part to help address those conditions. We will continue to monitor the situation, though immigration policy in the US is of course a matter for the US Government, just as immigration policy in the UK is decided by the British Government.

India: Islam

Lyn Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, with reference to recent reported acts of religious violence against Indian Muslims, what assessment he has made of the level of risk to visibly Muslim UK tourists visiting India.

Dr Andrew Murrison: The Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s travel advice to India, which is regularly updated, provides comprehensive security advice to all British nationals covering a range of situations and regions in India. These include the risk of increased threat in places visited by British nationals such as religious sites. Like all British nationals, British Muslims should exercise vigilance and keep up to date with local news and advisories.

Diplomatic Service: Disclosure of Information

Sir Nicholas Soames: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the process for (a) distributing and (b) grading of diplomatic telegrams of a sensitive nature; and if he will make a statement.

Sir Alan Duncan: Sir Simon McDonald, Permanent Under Secretary at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) gave evidence to the Foreign Affairs Committee on 10 July on the recent leak of classified information official documents, which covered Diplomatic Telegrams. Formal correspondence from diplomats, including these, is marked either OFFICIAL, OFFICIAL SENSITIVE or SECRET in line with government policy.We use the Cabinet Office Government Security Classification policy as a guide to classifying all FCO information and its subsequent handling. We are confident we have good security systems. Nevertheless we are reviewing how they are functioning in light of recent events. The new cross-government SECRET system developed by the Cabinet Office now also provides enhanced secure communication in the majority of our posts around the world and across government.

Department for Exiting the European Union

Overseas Trade

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, what cross-party discussions have taken place on preparations for the UK leaving the EU on WTO terms.

James Cleverly: The Government has consulted with Members from all sides of the House on a range of issues relating to the UK’s withdrawal from, and future relationship with the EU.If the UK leaves the EU without a deal, the UK would implement a temporary tariff regime that takes a balanced approach to support the UK economy as a whole. It will maintain open trade on the majority of UK imports, to support consumers and business supply chains, but retain necessary tariff protection for particular sectors of the UK economy. This would apply for up to 12 months while a full consultation, and review on a permanent approach, is undertaken.As a responsible government we’ve been preparing to minimise any disruption in the event of no deal for over three years. We remain focused on ensuring our smooth and orderly withdrawal from the EU.

Brexit: Parliamentary Scrutiny

Jo Stevens: To ask the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, what estimate he has made of the number of (a) Statutory Instruments and (b) Bills on leaving the EU that (i) have not yet be approved by Parliament and (ii) the Government plans to bring forward before 31 October 2019.

James Cleverly: The Government has made over 530 exit-related statutory instruments. The necessary preparations are in place to ensure a functioning statute book for exit day, as they were before 12 April. There will be a number of additional statutory instruments laid over the coming months to account for any new updates to EU regulations during the extension period.The progress of all bills currently before Parliament can be tracked on parliament.uk. We will need to introduce a bill to implement the Withdrawal Agreement if a deal is approved by Parliament.The Government is confident that we will have all the necessary legislation in place by exit day.

Department of Health and Social Care

HIV Infection: Drugs

Mr Ben Bradshaw: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the feasibility of alternative public funding options for the provision of PrEP.

Mr Ben Bradshaw: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the timeframe is for PrEP to be available on the NHS.

Seema Kennedy: The 36-month pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) Impact Trial is scheduled to continue until autumn 2020. Work is now starting to consider future commissioning for PrEP after the trial has ended, which includes consideration of funding options.

Magnetic Resonance Imagers

Sir George Howarth: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 4 July 2019 to Question 270294, how many MRI machines there are in the NHS.

Seema Kennedy: The information requested is not currently held.

Radiology: Staff

Sir George Howarth: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 4 July to Question 270295, how many radiologists (a) work for the NHS and (b) will be recruited in the next five years.

Seema Kennedy: NHS Digital publishes Hospital and Community Health Services workforce statistics. These include staff working in hospital trusts and clinical commissioning groups (CCGs), but not staff working in primary care or in general practitioner surgeries, local authorities or other providers.As at March 2019, the latest available data, there were over 4,300 clinical radiologists employed by National Health Service trusts and CCGs - this is 1,100 more since 2010.The interim NHS People Plan, published on 3 June 2019, puts the workforce at the heart of the NHS and will ensure we have the staff needed to deliver high quality care. A final People Plan will be published soon after the conclusion of the 2019 Spending Review. The Cancer Workforce Plan for England, published in December 2017 by Health Education England (HEE), set out plans to expand capacity and skills in the cancer workforce, including targeting additional training support for seven priority professions such as clinical radiology, histopathology, oncology and diagnostic and therapeutic radiography. Since 2017 there has been an increase of 343 full time equivalent staff within clinical radiology. HEE will now work with NHS England and NHS Improvement to understand the longer-term workforce implications of further development of cancer services. This work will inform the final People Plan.

Preventive Medicine

Tom Brake: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what is his timeframe is for the publication of the Prevention Green Paper.

Seema Kennedy: I refer the hon. Member to the answer given by the former Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Steve Brine MP) to the hon. Member for Glasgow Central (Alison Thewliss MP) on 16 January 2019 to Question 206879.

Obesity: Children

Tom Brake: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care,  with reference to the Childhood Obesity Plan: a plan for action, chapter 2, published on 25 June 2018, what progress he has made on reducing children's consumption of sugary drinks and food.

Seema Kennedy: The National Diet and Nutrition Survey is used to monitor consumption trends in the United Kingdom population. Data covering the period after publication of the Childhood Obesity Plan will become available in 2020.As part of the Childhood Obesity Plan, Public Health England (PHE) oversees a sugar reduction programme. In May 2018, PHE published a report assessing progress in the first year of the programme. This showed sugar in retailer own brand and manufacturer branded products reduced by 2% overall, with larger reductions in some individual product categories. Sugar in drinks covered by the Soft Drinks Industry Levy reduced by 11%. Data also showed that consumers are buying more drinks that have sugar levels below five grams per 100 millilitres. The report is available at the following link:https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/709008/Sugar_reduction_progress_report.pdf

Prisons: Health Services

Richard Burgon: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of healthcare provision in custodial institutions that hold children.

Jackie Doyle-Price: The Department has not made a formal assessment. Children and young people in secure settings should have access to the same range and quality of health services as their peers in the wider community receive from the National Health Service.Since April 2013, NHS England (now NHS England and NHS Improvement) has commissioned health services for all children and young people in Young Offender Institutions and Secure Children’s Homes (youth justice) in England. Commissioning responsibility for health services in Secure Training Centres (excluding Oakhill Secure Training Centre), transferred in 2014, and for Secure Children’s Homes (welfare only) in 2015.NHS England and NHS Improvement have a number of systems in place to enable it to assess the adequacy of healthcare provision. These include quarterly contract management meetings, Children and Young People Indicators of Performance returns, quality assurance visits, a quality surveillance process, and intelligence arising from Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons, Ofsted and Care Quality Commission reports. In addition, NHS England and NHS Improvement work in partnership with the relevant colleagues from Her Majesty's Prison and Probation Service Youth Custody Service, Ministry of Justice, Department for Education and Public Health England in responding to any concerns.

Accelerated Access Collaborative

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will list (a) the criteria and (b) the timelines for products to be considered in (i) the current and (ii) future review rounds of the Accelerated Access Collaborative.

Caroline Dinenage: In October 2018, the Accelerated Access Collaborative (AAC) announced it was supporting the uptake of 12 high performing products, with the potential to improve the lives of up to 500,000 patients per year and save the National Health Service £30 million per year in England. All the products currently being supported by the AAC have been recommended by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, and therefore evidence on clinical benefits and cost savings were considered as part of the process.The AAC board met on 26 June and had a positive discussion about future products and expects to announce further products later this year.The AAC will consider the following areas of interest when determining which products to support:- evidence of clinical and cost effectiveness;- addressing significant unmet need;- application to large populations or high budget impact; and- enabling a novel mode of action or enabling significant changes to the care pathway.

Hospitals: Infectious Diseases

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans the Accelerated Access Collaborative has to prioritise products which help to control hospital-acquired infections.

Caroline Dinenage: The Accelerated Access Collaborative (AAC) is interested in identifying and supporting strategically important products that will have the biggest impact on patient health outcomes and/or the delivery of National Health Service services. This may include those which help control hospital-acquired infections.The AAC has already had made significant progress towards getting the best innovations to patients quicker and at a better cost for the NHS.Since 2018, NHS England has been supporting SecurAcath and Plus Sutures, products designed to reduce infection rates, on the Innovation and Technology Payment programme. SecurAcath is a device to secure catheters that reduces the infection risk for patients with a peripherally inserted central catheter and has benefited over 80,000 patients. Seven trusts with higher than 4% surgical site infection rates have adopted Plus Sutures, a triclosan coated suture, with more trusts to be supported this year.

Accelerated Access Collaborative

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what criteria the Accelerated Access Collaborative uses in relation to decision-making on (a) medicines, (b) diagnostic tools and (c) digital services.

Caroline Dinenage: The Accelerated Access Collaborative (AAC) is interested in supporting the most strategically important products that will have the biggest impact on patient health outcomes and delivery of National Health Service services.When selecting products, the AAC will consider the following irrespective of innovation type (i.e. medicines, diagnostic tools, and digital products):- evidence of clinical and cost effectiveness;- addressing significant unmet need;- application to large populations or high budget impact; and- enabling a novel mode of action or enabling significant changes to the care pathway.Further information is available at the following link:https://www.nice.org.uk/aac

Mental Health Services: Police

Esther McVey: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure that retired police personnel with mental illnesses receive adequate treatment.

Jackie Doyle-Price: The Government is committed to ensuring that everyone, including retired police personnel, receives appropriate, timely, evidence-based mental health support according to need.Under the NHS Long Term Plan, there will be a comprehensive expansion of mental health services, with an additional £2.3 billion a year in real terms by 2023/24. This will give 380,000 more adults access to psychological therapies.The Plan also aims to ensure that anyone experiencing mental health crisis can call NHS 111 and have 24 hours a day, seven days a week access to the mental health support they need in the community. This will include post-crisis support for staff who are likely to have experienced extreme trauma.

Learning Disability: Health Services

Andrea Jenkyns: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to increase the recruitment of specialist learning disabilities nurses and support workers.

Caroline Dinenage: The Department and Health Education England (HEE) are undertaking work to ensure that the National Health Service has the learning disability nurses required to deliver high quality care. This includes ensuring nurses in other fields have opportunities within their competency frameworks to develop their skills further in order to work in learning disability nursing. The Government has offered pre-registration postgraduate learning disability nursing students, who commenced their loan-funded studies in the 2018/19 academic year, a £10,000 incentive payment once they take up employment in the NHS in that field.In addition, HEE continues to work with stakeholders across the health and social care sector to raise the profile of learning disability nursing, including working with the university sector to recruit more students onto courses and in partnership with the University and Colleges Admissions Service to run a recruitment campaign during university clearing.We recognise that care staff want more specialist training to help them to support the increasingly complex needs of people receiving care and support. We will introduce new specialist ‘cluster modules’ into the Care Certificate, including the development of a new module on learning disability in 2019/20.

Learning Disability: Community Care

Andrea Jenkyns: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of reforming the social care system to allow people with learning disabilities to be supported in their communities rather than in inpatients units.

Andrea Jenkyns: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to support NHS England’s commitment to reduce the number of inpatient beds for people with learning disabilities by 35 per cent.

Caroline Dinenage: ‘Building the Right Support’, published in 2015 by NHS England, the Local Government Association and the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services is the national plan in England for reducing the number of people with learning disabilities or autistic people who are in a mental health inpatient setting. It set out a clear framework for commissioners to reduce inpatient capacity by developing more community services for people with learning disabilities or autistic people with behaviour that challenges.The NHS Long Term Plan commits to implementing the ‘Building the Right Support’ plan in full, achieving a 50% reduction in the number of people with a learning disability or autism who are inpatients in mental health settings (compared to the figure in 2015) by the end of 2023/24 and ensuring that every local economy has specialist community provision. NHS Planning Guidance for 2019/20 requires the National Health Service to achieve a 35% reduction as quickly as possible and no later than the end of 2019/20.The Department will hold NHS England and all other delivery partners to account on achieving this.

Eating Disorders: Mental Health Services

Toby Perkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will publish a timeline for the implementation of the piloting of 4-week waiting time targets for adults with eating disorders.

Toby Perkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the merits of allocating additional funding for the treatment of eating disorders.

Jackie Doyle-Price: For adults with an eating disorder, the NHS Long Term Plan has made a renewed commitment that mental health services will grow faster than the overall National Health Service budget, with additional investment worth at least £2.3 billion a year by 2023/24. This includes investment in community-based adult eating disorder services as part of the Plan’s commitment to transform community-based care for adults with mental health needs. The NHS is also investing over £30 million in services every year to meet and maintain ambitious waiting targets, with 70 community treatment teams now covering the whole of the country so that more children and young people can get eating disorder care closer to home and out of hospital. As part of a broader programme of work on community based mental health care for adults, alongside work to explore the effectiveness of different approaches to integrated delivery with primary care and starting this summer, NHS England will test four-week waiting times for adult and older adult community mental health teams with selected local areas to build understanding of how best to introduce ambitious but achievable improvements to access, quality of care and outcomes. In doing so, NHS England will also consider the interfaces with specialist community mental health services, particularly where there is an existing evidence base for rapid direct access (such as eating disorders). Learning from these test sites about the required inputs to increase access and reduce waits will inform future policy discussions about a suitable timeframe for implementation of any future access and waiting time targets, for core community provision or for specialist provision.

Mental Health Services: Mothers

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to (a) improve identification of maternal mental health problems and (b) increase funding maternal postnatal checks.

Jackie Doyle-Price: This Government is committed to preventing mental illness and improving health outcomes for new parents and their children.The NHS Long Term Plan commits to improving access to and the quality of perinatal mental health care for mothers, their partners and children with the ambition to increase access to perinatal mental health services to an additional 30,000 women by 2020/21, with a further 24,000 women to be able to access specialist perinatal mental health care by 2023/24.From April 2019, new and expectant parents are able to access specialist perinatal mental health community services across England. Specialist care will also be available from preconception to 24 months after birth, which will provide an extra year of support (care is currently provided from preconception to 12 months after birth).The potential for a six week post-natal maternal health check for all mothers that includes questions relating to mental health, is the subject of further work by NHS England and NHS Improvement to establish a clearer picture of current practice in the area. If taken forward, the check could be introduced from April 2020.The NHS Long Term Plan Implementation Framework set out plans to provide all areas with an additional funding to support the delivery of mental health priorities – including an expansion of access to specialist community perinatal mental health services in 2019/20.

Palliative Care: Children

Ian Lavery: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will bring forward legislative proposals to ensure that parents are responsible for the end-of-life decisions for their child.

Caroline Dinenage: There are no plans to change the existing well-established principles around consent to treatment on behalf of children or to bring forward legislation. The principles around consent to treatment or refusal of treatment apply to both general treatment and the very difficult decisions around end of life.It is a general legal and ethical principle that valid consent must be obtained from an individual or, where the individual is not competent to make such decisions, from someone acting on the individual’s behalf, before starting a treatment or physical intervention.However, those under 16 are not automatically presumed to be legally competent to make decisions about their healthcare. Where someone under 16 is not considered competent to give consent for themselves, the existing principle is that consent should be sought from a person with parental responsibility although in certain circumstances this can be overruled by the courts.In ‘Our Commitment to you for end of life care’, we set out what everyone should expect from their care at the end of life and the actions we are taking to make high quality personalised care a reality for all. This includes ensuring that patients, careers and families, including parents, are at the centre of care decision making.

Influenza: Vaccination

Mr Gregory Campbell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the level of (a) preparedness and (b) stocks of medicine for the administration of the winter flu jab in each of the last three years.

Seema Kennedy: NHS England has for the last three years carried out a ‘state of readiness’ assessment for the administration of the winter flu vaccine with the NHS England local public health commissioning teams.Public Health England (PHE) supplies flu vaccines for the children’s flu programme. Sufficient vaccine has been procured in the last three years to ensure that all eligible children who present for vaccination can be offered the appropriate vaccine.General practitioners are responsible for ordering from manufacturers sufficient flu vaccinations for other eligible groups in their population. PHE and NHS England have for the last three years worked closely with the flu vaccine manufacturers on the supply of sufficient vaccines. In particular, in 2018/19, NHS England worked closely with the manufacturer of the vaccines for the over 65s and service providers to manage the phased delivery of supplies to ensure satisfactory uptake rates were achieved.

Cancer: Health Services

Diana Johnson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions (a) Sustainability and Transformation Partnerships and (b) Integrated Care Systems have had with Cancer Alliances to refine planning and prioritisation for the delivery of the cancer commitments within the NHS Long-Term Plan.

Seema Kennedy: As set out in the NHS Long Term Plan Implementation Framework, local systems, including sustainability and transformation partnerships and integrated care systems, should engage with their Cancer Alliances to set out practically how they will deliver the Long Term Plan commitments for cancer over the next five years including on early diagnosis and survival, while improving operational performance.

Heart Diseases: Health Services

Paul Farrelly: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure that the National Implementation Framework of the NHS Long Term Plan facilitates delivery of (a) improved equity in access to treatment for heart valve disease, (b) additional funding for treatment of heart valve disease to enable healthy ageing and (c) increased NHS capacity for multidisciplinary teams providing care to all heart valve disease patients.

Seema Kennedy: The NHS Long Term Plan outlines NHS England and NHS Improvement’s commitment to improve the prevention, early detection and treatment of cardiovascular disease. As part of this, local systems will work to better support people with heart failure and heart valve disease through multi-disciplinary teams as part of primary care networks.To improve early detection of heart failure, pilot schemes will be established in 2020/21 and 2021/22 to increase access to echocardiography, ahead of a wider rollout. Greater access to echocardiography in primary care will improve the investigation of those with breathlessness, and the early detection of heart failure and valve disease.There are published service specifications that promote network working to ensure cardiac pathways are well-defined.The Specialised Commissioning Cardiac Improvement Programme is also focusing on improving multi-disciplinary team working, including the use of technology to optimise the available resource within clinical teams.

NHS: WiFi

Ben Bradley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure that NHS wifi is rolled out to every (a) general practitioner practice and (b) community, mental health and acute NHS trust in Nottinghamshire.

Jackie Doyle-Price: NHS Digital has advised that both Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust and Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust offer a free WiFi service. 97% (143 out of 147) general practitioner (GP) practices in Nottinghamshire offer a free WiFi service. NHS Digital is supporting Bassetlaw Clinical Commissioning Group in enabling the remaining 4 GP practices to implement free WiFi services by September 2019. All community, mental health and acute trusts in Nottinghamshire are live with NHS WiFi services.

Abortion

Toby Perkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent estimate he has made of the number of women who have had abortions mandated by (a) a medical practitioner and (b) the courts against their wises in each of the last three years.

Jackie Doyle-Price: Information on the number of women who have been required to have an abortion against their wishes is not collected centrally.

Prescriptions: Fees and Charges

Julie Cooper: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate his Department has made of the administrative cost to the NHS Business Services Authority Loss Recovery Service of checking claims for free prescriptions.

Seema Kennedy: For the financial period 2017-18, the cost to the NHS Business Services Authority for the running of the full Prescription Exemption Checking Service which includes checking prescription form exemption declarations, issuing Penalty Charge Notices and managing associated customer contact, was £6.8 million.

Alcoholic Drinks: Misuse

Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what policies his Department has implemented to tackle alcohol harm caused by social inequalities since 2010.

Seema Kennedy: Lower socioeconomic status is associated with higher mortality for alcohol-attributable causes, despite lower socioeconomic groups often reporting lower levels of consumption. The Government is committed to tackling harms from alcohol. As part of the NHS Long Term Plan, we are establishing specialist Alcohol Care Teams in hospitals with the highest rates of alcohol harm. It is estimated that this will prevent 50,000 admissions over five years. Local authorities will also receive over £3 billion in 2019/20 to be used exclusively on public health including alcohol treatment services. Public Health England is supporting NHS England’s tobacco and alcohol commissioning for quality and innovation scheme, which encourages hospitals to screen all inpatients about their alcohol use and offer appropriate interventions. Additionally, funding of £6 million has been allocated to support children who live with an alcohol dependent parent which will address the inequalities facing this vulnerable group.

Eating Disorders: Mental Health Services

Lisa Nandy: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 25 June 2019 to Question 267305 on Eating Disorders: Mental Health Services, what the timetable will be for the overall testing of new models of primary and community mental health care.

Lisa Nandy: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 25 June 2019 to Question 267305 on Eating Disorders: Mental Health Services, when he plans to provide further information on the funding arrangements for the proposed pilot schemes of four-week waiting time targets for adult eating disorder treatment.

Jackie Doyle-Price: For adults with an eating disorder, the NHS Long Term Plan has made a renewed commitment that mental health services will grow faster than the overall National Health Service budget, with additional investment worth at least £2.3 billion a year by 2023/24. This includes investment in community-based adult eating disorder services as part of the Plan’s commitment to transform community-based care for adults with mental health needs. The NHS is also investing over £30 million in services every year to meet and maintain ambitious waiting targets, with 70 community treatment teams now covering the whole of the country so that more children and young people can get eating disorder care closer to home and out of hospital. As part of a broader programme of work on community based mental health care for adults, alongside work to explore the effectiveness of different approaches to integrated delivery with primary care and starting this summer, NHS England will test four-week waiting times for adult and older adult community mental health teams with selected local areas to build understanding of how best to introduce ambitious but achievable improvements to access, quality of care and outcomes. In doing so, NHS England will also consider the interfaces with specialist community mental health services, particularly where there is an existing evidence base for rapid direct access (such as eating disorders). Learning from these test sites about the required inputs to increase access and reduce waits will inform future policy discussions about a suitable timeframe for implementation of any future access and waiting time targets, for core community provision or for specialist provision.

Dietary Supplements and Food

Jo Stevens: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the effect of the UK leaving the EU without a deal on supplies of (a) synthetic protein supplements and (b) prescription foods.

Stephen Hammond: As in preparation for 29 March and 12 April, our ‘no deal’ contingency plans for 31 October cover the National Health Service, social care and the independent sector and covers all medicines, medical devices and clinical consumables, supplies for clinical trials, vaccines and countermeasures, and organs and tissues for transplants.Specialist nutritional products including prescription foods and synthetic protein supplements are an important part of patient care throughout the health and social care sector. In recognition of this we have made this a specific area of focus within our preparedness arrangements.The Department has continued to work closely with the devolved administrations, industry trade bodies including the British Specialist Nutrition Association and suppliers, the NHS and other key stakeholders. Prior to 29 March, the Department analysed the supply chains of 12,300 medicines, close to half a million product lines of medical devices and clinical consumables, vaccines used in national and local programmes, and essential non-clinical goods on which the health and care system relies. These analyses and assessments have been updated where necessary and will continue to be refined while a ‘no deal’ European Union exit remains a possibility. This work has informed our plans.We are asking suppliers to analyse their supply chains and to make alternative plans if they anticipate disruption, including rerouting to alternative ports or using airfreight where necessary. Our contingency measures aim to support industry-led measures and, where required, act as a ‘last resort’ to be used only when a supplier’s alternative arrangements encounter difficulties, to ensure uninterrupted supply.

Phenylketonuria: Health Services

Jo Stevens: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the extent of regional disparities in support for people with Phenylketonuria.

Seema Kennedy: In England, services for patients with Phenylketonuria are provided via two routes, nationally commissioned through the National Health Service and through local clinical commissioning groups (CCGs), for example for food supplements.The Government and the NHS are dedicated to offering a consistent approach to treatment and provide the best local care for patients with both, rare and common diseases. Services commissioned locally through CCGs via sustainability and transformation partnerships (STPs) enable service coordination across wider footprints. In England, the NHS Long Term Plan set out the ambition for all STPs to evolve into integrated care systems (ICSs) by April 2021. ICSs are an ‘evolved’ form of a STP, making faster progress in integrating care across their area, bringing together organisations to provide more seamless care for patients.

Smoking: Pregnancy

Mr Gregory Campbell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the projected change in smoking rates among pregnant women is over the next two years.

Seema Kennedy: As outlined in the Tobacco Control Plan for England, published in 2017, the Government is committed to reducing the prevalence of women smoking during pregnancy to 6% or less by the end of 2022.

Special Educational Needs

Catherine McKinnell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what outcomes NHS England plans to achieve for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities during the lifespan of the NHS Long Term Plan.

Catherine McKinnell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much funding NHS England has allocated to improving outcomes for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities during the lifespan of the NHS Long-Term Plan.

Caroline Dinenage: Aspirations for children and young people are set out in the NHS Long Term Plan and the recently published Implementation Framework. Services for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities and learning disabilities and autism are separate workstreams under the new Children and Young People Transformation Board.Funding to deliver the improvements set out in the Long Term Plan will be provided through clinical commissioning groups allocations and additional service development funding.

Prisons: Mental Health Services

Zac Goldsmith: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to improve the mental health of prisoners.

Jackie Doyle-Price: NHS England and NHS Improvement are currently working across the entire criminal justice pathway to develop and improve services for offenders with mental health difficulties. NHS England and NHS Improvement are working with partners to intervene at the earliest opportunity to ensure that offenders receive the right care, in the right place, at the right time. Liaison and Diversion Services operate in police stations and courts to identify and assess people with vulnerabilities including mental health issues. Where that individual is subsequently sent to prison the receiving prison will have the relevant information of the individual’s mental health needs to inform the reception healthcare staff so that they can implement appropriate interventions as soon as possible after they arrive. Health services are available across the estate where assessment identifies treatment needs. The service specification for prison mental health services was reviewed in 2017-18. This review, led by clinicians in conjunction with stakeholders and informed by experts with experience, was published in March 2018, with all new services being commissioned against it from April 2018. The new specification includes the Royal College of Psychiatrists Quality Network for Prison Mental Health Services standards, ensuring equity of quality across the estate. NHS England and NHS Improvement are currently consulting on revised Transfer and Remission guidance to ensure that new clinically developed timescales are set which ensure timely and appropriate access to mental health treatment in hospital when necessary, in a clinically safe and well managed way. The consultation ends on 19 July 2019. The NHS Long Term Plan committed to a new service to support people leaving custody to remain engaged with community-based healthcare services. The reconnect service will support continuity of care when people return to the community.

Prisoners: Mental Illness

Zac Goldsmith: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of the proportion of the prison population with mental health problems.

Jackie Doyle-Price: No estimate has been made of the proportion of the prison health population with mental health problems. Currently a closed system is used to record clinical data in prisons. The Health and Justice Information Service system, being rolled out between 2018-20, will have the ability to share information with community healthcare services; this is integral to the collection of relevant data that is quality assured and robust.

Eating Disorders: Mental Health Services

Caroline Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when details of the funding arrangements for the planned pilots of four week waiting time standards to access adult community eating disorder services will be made available.

Caroline Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when he will announce the (a) scope and (b) timelines of the pilots of four week waiting time standards for adult and older adult community mental health teams, including for adult community eating disorder services.

Jackie Doyle-Price: For adults with an eating disorder, the NHS Long Term Plan has made a renewed commitment that mental health services will grow faster than the overall National Health Service budget, with additional investment worth at least £2.3 billion a year by 2023/24. This includes investment in community-based adult eating disorder services as part of the Plan’s commitment to transform community-based care for adults with mental health needs. The NHS is also investing over £30 million in services every year to meet and maintain ambitious waiting targets, with 70 community treatment teams now covering the whole of the country so that more children and young people can get eating disorder care closer to home and out of hospital. As part of a broader programme of work on community based mental health care for adults, alongside work to explore the effectiveness of different approaches to integrated delivery with primary care and starting this summer, NHS England will test four-week waiting times for adult and older adult community mental health teams with selected local areas to build understanding of how best to introduce ambitious but achievable improvements to access, quality of care and outcomes. In doing so, NHS England will also consider the interfaces with specialist community mental health services, particularly where there is an existing evidence base for rapid direct access (such as eating disorders). Learning from these test sites about the required inputs to increase access and reduce waits will inform future policy discussions about a suitable timeframe for implementation of any future access and waiting time targets, for core community provision or for specialist provision.

Measles: Disease Control

Mr Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to reduce the number of measles cases in England.

Seema Kennedy: In January 2019 Public Health England, Public Health Wales, the Public Health Agency in Northern Ireland and Health Protection Scotland published the United Kingdom Measles and rubella elimination strategy, which is available at the following link:https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/measles-and-rubella-elimination-uk-strategyThis strategy sets out four core components required to maintain elimination of measles and rubella:- achieving and sustaining very high coverage of greater than or equal to 95% with two doses of measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) through the routine childhood immunisation programme for those children less than five years old;- providing opportunities for MMR catch-up to all population groups at risk for and susceptible to measles and/or rubella for those over five years old;- strengthening surveillance systems by rigorous case investigation and laboratory confirmation of suspected sporadic cases and outbreaks; and- improving the availability and use of high-quality, evidence-based information for health professionals and the public on the measles and MMR.A multi-agency implementation board is working with national and local stakeholders to take forward the actions of the strategy.

Antimicrobials: Drug Resistance

Mr Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on vaccine research to tackle antimicrobial resistance.

Seema Kennedy: The Secretaries of State for Health and Social Care and for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs co-signed the foreword to the cross-Government United Kingdom vision for antimicrobial resistance in 2040 and five year national action plan, published in January, and recognising the key role vaccination plays in minimising infections in both humans and animals. The national action plan includes the commitment to stimulate more research into new vaccines for humans and animals, as well as improving the effectiveness of existing ones. The Departments are working across Government and its agencies to implement the commitments in the national action plan.

NHS: Staff

Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent estimate he has made of staffing levels in the NHS.

Stephen Hammond: The National Health Service employs record numbers of dedicated NHS staff that work tirelessly to make sure patients get excellent, safe care. There are over 51,900 more professionally qualified clinical staff, over 16,500 more doctors and almost 10,500 more nurses, midwives and health visitors working in NHS trusts and clinical commissioning groups than in 2010.The interim NHS People Plan, published on 3 June 2019, puts staff at the heart of NHS policy and delivery and sets out how we will secure a capable and motivated multidisciplinary healthcare workforce, of a sufficient size, to meet population health needs.

NHS: Amazon

Jonathan Ashworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Government's announcement that NHS health information will be made available through Amazon’s Alexa,  who will have ownership of data generated through that collaboration; what estimate he has made of the financial value of that collaboration to (a) the NHS and (b) Amazon; and for what reasons that collaboration is exclusively with Amazon and not other providers of voice-activated searches.

Jackie Doyle-Price: The agreement signed between the Department and Amazon is clear that none of the data generated will be shared with third parties; that it will not be used for selling products or making product recommendations to Amazon users; nor is it building any form of health profiles on Amazon customers.This is a mutually beneficial collaboration that will enable greater numbers of people to access information accredited by the National Health Service, helping to put people in control of their own healthcare. The information being provided to users of Alexa devices asking questions is already freely available through the NHS website. This is just an alternative mechanism for delivering that information.The agreement with Amazon is non-exclusive and we want to work with other organisations to arrange for the content to be provided on other home devices.

NHS: Amazon

Jonathan Ashworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the announcement that NHS health information will be available through Amazon’s Alexa, what assessment his Department has made of the effectiveness of Alexa for identifying health information; what safeguards for patient safety are in place to monitor the effectiveness of Alexa; whether the information provided by Alexa that originates from NHS-verified health information be clearly differentiated from information that originates from other non-verified sources; and if he will make a statement.

Jackie Doyle-Price: The information provided by Amazon Alexa in response to questions asked by users is taken directly from the National Health Service website. It is an alternative mechanism for accessing professional NHS-verified health information that is already freely available on the NHS website.The service provided by Amazon will not provide any form of diagnosis or advice. It is intended to provide NHS-verified information on the symptoms and treatments for different medical conditions using the exact wording from the NHS website.When a response is given by Alexa to a question from a user, it will be preceded with the phrase, “according to the NHS website…”, which clearly differentiates it from any other source of information.NHS Digital is working closely with Amazon to assess the effectiveness of the service. The algorithm used by Amazon is still learning and will be updated continuously to learn how people are asking questions about health conditions.

Parkinson's Disease: Nurses

Mr Laurence Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to increase the number of Parkinson's disease nurse specialists employed by the NHS; and if he will make a statement.

Stephen Hammond: There are no post-registration requirements for a Registered Nurse to become a Parkinson’s nurse. Therefore, local integrated care systems will be responsible for ensuring they have the necessary numbers of Parkinson’s (and other specialist) nurses to meet the needs of their local population.The NHS interim People Plan was published on 3 June 2019, it puts staff at the heart of National Health Service policy and delivery and recognises the current shortage of nurses as the most urgent challenge facing the health system.It calls for action to be taken now to make the NHS the best place to work, by reforming the culture and leadership and ensuring all staff (including nurses) feel supported and valued, in an effort to increase workforce recruitment and retention.The interim Plan proposes to increase the number of newly qualified NHS nurses, support and retain existing nurses, provide nurses with every opportunity to return to work, and bring in nurses from abroad. It commits to delivering 5,000 additional clinical placements for nursing students, 7,500 further Nursing Associates, increasing undergraduate supply and broadening routes into nursing.

Cancer: Health Services

Mr Laurence Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to employ more staff working on cancer (a) prevention, (b) diagnosis and (c) treatment in the NHS after 2021; and if he will make a statement.

Seema Kennedy: The interim NHS People Plan, published on 3 June 2019, puts the workforce at the heart of the National Health Service and will ensure we have the staff needed to deliver high quality care. A final People Plan will be published soon after the conclusion of the 2019 Spending Review.The Cancer Workforce Plan for England, published in December 2017 by Health Education England (HEE), set out plans to expand capacity and skills in the cancer workforce, including targeting additional training support for seven priority professions which are key to cancer prevention, diagnosis and treatment, such as clinical radiology, histopathology, oncology and diagnostic and therapeutic radiography. HEE will now work with NHS England and NHS Improvement to understand the longer-term workforce implications of further development of cancer services. This work will inform the final People Plan.

NHS: Computer Software

Jo Platt: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of the number of computers in the NHS that use the Windows XP operating system.

Jackie Doyle-Price: As of July 2019, approximately 2,300 National Health Service computers are using Windows XP from a total of around 1.4 million. This equates to 0.16% of the NHS estate. We are supporting NHS organisations to upgrade their existing Microsoft Windows operating systems, allowing them to reduce potential vulnerabilities and increase cyber resilience.

Healthy Start Scheme

Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when he plans to start the consultation on Healthy Start vouchers.

Jackie Doyle-Price: The Department is considering a range of options for consulting on Healthy Start vouchers. The consultation has been postponed until we are in a better position to identify further opportunities to improve the Healthy Start Scheme.

Dental Services: Children

Julie Cooper: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the cost to the public purse was of the Smile4life Starting well pilot project in the 2017-18 financial year.

Seema Kennedy: NHS England, which set up Starting Well, an initiative to reach out to children not regularly in touch with a dentist in 13 high needs areas, advises that this information is not held centrally.

Dental Services: Children

Julie Cooper: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many children aged five to nine have had to go to hospital for an emergency dental extraction in each of the last three years; and what the cost has been to the public purse.

Seema Kennedy: The data is not held in the format requested.

Dementia: Health Services

Sir David Evennett: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make it is policy to introduce a dedicated dementia fund as recommended by the Alzheimer's Society.

Sir David Evennett: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent steps his Department has taken to improve (a) awareness and (b) diagnosis of dementia.

Sir David Evennett: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much was spent on dementia care in (a) Bexley, (b) London and (c) England in each of the last five years.

Caroline Dinenage: We have noted the recent Alzheimer’s Society report. We are committed to publishing a Green Paper on adult social care at the earliest opportunity, setting out proposals for reform. One aspect of the dementia fund proposals was related to personal health budgets. Within Universal Personalised Care, we committed to exploring possible new rights to have personal health budgets in a further five areas across 2019-20, including dementia.We continue to work with our partners to deliver in full the Challenge on Dementia 2020, which includes commitments to improve awareness of dementia. There are now more than 2.8 million people that are dementia friends and 365 areas in England have committed to become Dementia Friendly Communities.The Challenge on Dementia 2020 sets out the ambition for two thirds of people with dementia to receive a formal diagnosis. This has been achieved nationally. Our focus now is on reducing the variation in local diagnosis rates, and NHS England have published guidance and put programmes in place to further improve the quality and timeliness of diagnosis across the country.Information on how much funding was spent on dementia care in Bexley, London and England is not available centrally. NHS England allocates funding to clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) which commission services on behalf of their local populations. It is for CCGs to decide how best to use the funding allocated to them in line with local healthcare needs and priorities, working with other local commissioners and organisations.

Spinal Muscular Atrophy: Nusinersen

Sir Christopher Chope: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 8 July 2019 to Question 369611 on Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA), what the evidential basis is that Spinraza does not work effectively on people with SMA that are excluded from access to that drug following the announcement of 15 May 2019 by NICE on that drug; and if he will make a statement.

Seema Kennedy: The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is currently developing recommendations for the National Health Service on the use of Spinraza for the treatment of spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) through its technology appraisal programme. NICE recommends technologies for use in the NHS when the evidence demonstrates that they are clinically effective and represent a cost-effective use of NHS resources.There are several subtypes of SMA and, in the case of Spinraza, NICE has advised that it was not presented with evidence in SMA type 0 and SMA type 4. Evidence presented for the SMA type 3 population, who had lost the ability to walk, was limited and immature and resulted in its independent Appraisal Committee concluding that the size and nature of the benefits of Spinraza for this population were uncertain. Therefore, they were not included in the managed access arrangement (MAA) agreed by NHS England and Biogen.Following publication of the initial MAA, the company presented further clinical evidence and the MAA was extended to include paediatric patients, who have recently (in the previous 12 months) lost the ability to walk independently.Uniquely for this type of arrangement, during the five-year course of the MAA, should evidence become available on the potential benefits of Spinraza for type 3 SMA patients that are currently not included in the MAA, NICE will review that evidence to see whether it would support a change in the MAA inclusion criteria.

Department for International Development

Sustainable Development: Cooperatives

Jim McMahon: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps are being taken to increase the number of worker co-operatives worldwide in order to promote sustainable development.

Harriett Baldwin: DFID is committed to ensuring inclusive economic development in the countries where we work, including creating better quality jobs for the poorest and most marginalised. DFID has supported the growth of co-operatives, particularly in the agriculture sector. For example, in the Nigerian dairy market, the Business Innovation Facility project is working with pastoralist co-operatives to boost milk production. We will continue to look for opportunities to support worker co-operatives as one channel through which we can help to create the more and better jobs required to achieve Global Goal 8.

South America: Indigenous Peoples

Paul Farrelly: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps his Department is taking to support indigenous groups in the Amazon region whose ecosystems are potentially threatened by oil and gas producers.

Harriett Baldwin: DFID works with the extractives industries (gas, oil and mining), governments and civil society in DFID priority countries to maximise the benefits from extractive industries, in a way that finances public services, enables sustainable and inclusive growth and reduces poverty. While DFID does not have bilateral programmes or a direct footprint related to extractives industries in the Amazon Region, our forestry programming does support broader work in the Amazon with indigenous groups. For example, in June the Global Environment Facility (GEF), to which the UK is a major donor, approved $88 million of funding to the Amazon Sustainable Landscapes Programme to protect this ecosystem. GEF programming is guided by its Principles and Guidelines for Engagement with Indigenous Peoples and Indigenous Peoples Advisory Group.

Democratic Republic of Congo: Ebola

Liz McInnes: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what recent assessment he has made of the potential risk of the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo spreading to South Sudan.

Harriett Baldwin: The risk of spread to countries neighbouring eastern DRC remains high, including to South Sudan. This is why the UK is the leading donor to regional preparedness efforts in neighbouring countries, helping support a range of activities, including screening at border crossings and the vaccination of health workers. The recent confirmed Ebola case in Ariwara, DRC, 70km from South Sudan, has further encouraged the international community to step up preparedness activities, particularly in high-risk areas along the border, in the support of the Government of South Sudan.

Developing Countries: Renewable Energy

Angela Crawley: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what support her Department is providing to clean energy projects in developing countries.

Harriett Baldwin: UK support over the last six years has resulted in 17 million people having improved access to clean energy, and 590MW of clean energy capacity being installed.DFID’s support to clean energy in developing countries is delivered through a range of programmes. For example, DFID provides funding to support the installation of more solar power such as through mini-grids in Kenya and Rwanda; helps to establish markets in African countries for small scale, household solar power so poor people have access to affordable clean energy; and funds research and innovation for example in electric vehicles, clean cookstoves and solar battery storage. We also provide support for investments in clean energy through CDC for example supporting hydro-electric power in DRC; and through our funding of multilateral development organisations, such as the World Bank and the Green Climate Fund, the latter of which reports investment of $12.4 billion in renewable energy since 2008.Our priority is to help developing countries establish a secure and sustainable energy supply, which is essential for economic growth and poverty reduction. We are doing that in a way that supports the global climate change goals.

Democratic Republic of Congo: Mining

Paul Farrelly: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps the Government is taking to support the Congolese authorities to ensure that mines in that country are (a) well regulated, (b) follow health and safety procedures and (c) do not employ or use children as labour in those mines.

Harriett Baldwin: The UK is working to promote responsible and safe practices, including eliminating child labour and ensuring sound governance and regulation of the mining sector in the Democratic Republic of Congo. As a founding member of the European Partnership for Responsible Minerals (EPRM), the UK helps promote responsible sourcing of minerals. More recently, DFID has been working with the Carter Centre to improve transparency and governance in the mining sector. The UK is very committed to addressing the three issues outlined on regulation, health & safety and use of child labour by encouraging compliance with the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Mineral Supply Chains from Conflict-Affected and High-Risk Areas. The implementation of this guidance will be made mandatory for the biggest importers in the EU via the EU Regulation on the Responsible Sourcing of Conflict Minerals. This will come into force in January 2021. The UK will continue to implement this regulation after leaving the EU as it will be rolled over into UK Law via the European Union (Withdrawal) Bill.

UN Convention on the Status of Refugees

Jo Stevens: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what discussions his Department has had in the last three years with his counterparts in the Governments of other nations party to the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol on (a) global compliance with the convention and protocol and (b) the status of refugees internationally.

Dr Andrew Murrison: The UK is committed to supporting refugees, the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol. We played a key role with our international partners to develop the Global Compact on Refugees, which was agreed in December last year. This Compact provides a framework for more predictable and equitable responsibility-sharing and more effective international cooperation in refugee responses. The UK actively engaged in its development, including through five Thematic Meetings and six Formal Consultations between Member States in Geneva over 2017 and 2018. The UK remains steadfastly supportive of the aims of the Compact. We continue to urge all states to back it and consistently emphasise the shared responsibility in addressing forced displacement and the importance of other donors stepping up. The Global Refugee Forum at the end of this year will be an important opportunity to further broaden the support base and we will play our part in this process in full.

Sub-Saharan Africa: Water

Mr Gregory Campbell: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, whether the Millennium Development Goal targets on access to clean water by 2020 will be met in sub-Saharan Africa.

Dr Andrew Murrison: The Millennium Development Goal targets for clean water in sub-Saharan Africa were not met by the 2015 deadline. Between 2015 and 2018, DFID supported 17.5 million people in Africa to access clean water and/or better sanitation. For example, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, over 2.7 million people gained access to clean water with DFID’s support between 2015 and 2018. In Ethiopia, DFID supported 1.9 million people to access clean water and/or better sanitation.

Department for Education

Universities: Admissions

Edward Miliband: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of making additional indicators of pupils’ disadvantage and under-representation in higher education accessible to universities in order to support their widening participation and access work.

Edward Miliband: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether he has made an assessment of how the sharing with universities of additional indicators of applicants’ disadvantage and under-representation in higher education could enable universities to make further progress on increasing access and participation among disadvantaged applicants.

Chris Skidmore: Widening access and participation in higher education (HE) is a priority for the government. This means that everyone with the capability to succeed in HE should have the opportunity to participate, regardless of their background.The government has made progress in ensuring universities are open to all, with record rates of disadvantaged 18 year olds in HE. However, we are aware that more needs to be done to support access and participation in HE, so it is vital that we continue to build on this progress.HE providers need to use good quality and meaningful data to identify disadvantage and under-representation in order to effectively address disparities in access and participation in HE.We encourage institutions to use a range of measures to identify disadvantage and under-representation, including individual-level indicators, area data (such as Participation of Local Areas data, Index of Multiple Deprivation or ACORN), school data, intersectional data such as the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service's (UCAS) Multiple Equality Measure and participation in outreach activities. The department is continuing to work with the Office for Students, UCAS and sector representatives to further explore how we can support universities to improve and enhance access to data.

Disabled Students' Allowances

Steve McCabe: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether he plans to merge the allowances for non-medical, equipment and general support for disabled students’ allowance to permit more flexibility in how that allowance may be spent by undergraduate students.

Chris Skidmore: The department has no plans to merge the 4 separate Disabled Students’ Allowances currently available to undergraduate students.

Swimming: Primary Education

Tom Watson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what proportion of pupils in year six met each of the three swimming and water safety national curriculum requirements in each of the last five years.

Nadhim Zahawi: Swimming and water safety are compulsory elements of the physical education (PE) national curriculum at key stages 1 and 2. All schools in receipt of the primary PE and sport premium are required to publish information on the percentage of their pupils in year 6 who met each of the 3 swimming and water safety national curriculum expectations. The department does not collect data centrally on the proportion of primary school children who meet the national curriculum expectations. However, we are working with Swim England and members of the Swim Group to explore ways to provide further support to schools to assess pupils’ capability and to collect and report this data.

Schools

Neil O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, for each local authority (a) how many pupils studied in state schools in that local authority who lived in another local authority, (b) how many pupils who lived in that local authority went to a state school in a different local authority, (c) and what the average level of per pupil funding per pupil was in each local authority in real terms in (i) the most recent year for which data are available and (ii) in 2010.

Nick Gibb: The information required for parts (a) and (b) are published in the local authority cross border movement tables of the annual “School, Pupils and their characteristics” statistical release. The latest data, relating to January 2018, can be found at the following link:https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/schools-pupils-and-their-characteristics-january-2018.The revenue funding allocated for schools for financial years 2010-2011 and 2018-2019 for each local authority (LA) are shown in the attached table.The government publishes gross domestic product deflators that can be used to understand the impact of inflation over time. These are available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/gdp-deflators-at-market-prices-and-money-gdp-june-2019-quarterly-national-accounts.



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Wakefield City Academies Trust: Deloitte and Touche

Mary Creagh: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 8 July 2019 to Question 272217 on Wakefield City Academies Trust: Deloitte and Touche, how much the Education and Skills Funding Agency spent on services provided by Deloitte in relation to Wakefield City Academies Trust from 1 June 2019 to 30 June 2019.

Nadhim Zahawi: The Education & Skills Funding Agency has not paid Deloitte for services in relation to Wakefield City Academies Trust in the period 1 June 2019 to 30 June 2019.

Apprentices: Construction

Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many people have registered on the Level two bricklayer apprenticeship standard in the last 12 months.

Anne Milton: Latest published figures show that from July 2018 to March 2019, there were 460 starts on the level 2 Bricklayer apprenticeship standard. This figure is available here:https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/804343/Monthly-apprenticeship-starts-fwk-tool_May-2019.xlsx. We publish other breakdowns on apprenticeship starts regularly in the further education data library: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/fe-data-library.

Academies: Standards

Eddie Hughes: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what evidence his Department holds on the effectiveness of Multi Academy Trusts in improving educational outcomes for pupils.

Nadhim Zahawi: Performance data illustrates how disadvantaged pupils in academy trusts are making more progress at GCSE level than the equivalent national average. Data for key stage 4 and academy trust performance in 2018 is available here:https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/774014/2018_KS4_main_text.pdf.In primary schools within academy trusts, disadvantaged pupils performed significantly better than the equivalent national average in writing and maths. Data for key stage 2 and academy trust performance is available here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/774446/KS2_Revised.The department has also conducted a series of assessments into the effectiveness of academy trusts in improving educational outcomes for pupils. In 2019, we published internal analysis of the performance of sponsored academies, which typically converted to academy status due to underperformance. Our analysis concluded that pupil outcomes in sponsored academies have typically improved since their formation in comparison with sets of similar schools. The analysis is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/sponsored-academy-performance. Evidence shows there are now more than 550,000 pupils in good or outstanding sponsored academies, which typically replaced underperforming local authority schools.In addition to our own internal analysis, we also hold evidence produced by external organisations, such as the one produced by the Institute of Education, available here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/763796/School_Improvement_in_Multi-School_groups_-_FINAL_10122018.pdf.

Academies: Standards

Eddie Hughes: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is taking to incentivise multi-academy trusts to deliver effective school improvements; and if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of creating a mechanism for schools to decide to move between multi-academy trusts.

Nadhim Zahawi: Academy trusts operate under a strict system of oversight and accountability for the quality of education they provide, which informs decisions about targeted support or intervention. Regional School Commissioners work to support academy trusts within their regions and, where appropriate, encourage academies and trusts to apply for funding to support school improvement, such as The Multi-academy trust Development and Improvement Fund.Where a school wishes to leave a trust of which it is already a part of, this is possible with the consent of my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education, providing both the school and the trust are in favour; that it can be demonstrated there will be greater benefits for the school from joining another trust; and that the capacity of the existing trust is not diminished.

Academies: Standards

Eddie Hughes: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment his Department has made of the effectiveness of the five growth checks for multi-academy trusts.

Nadhim Zahawi: The department has conducted an assessment of the multi-academy trust (MAT) development programme, previously referred to as growth checks. A summary of the assessment will be published in due course.The materials for the MAT development programme can be found at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/722985/MAT_Development_Programme_2018_resource.pdf.

Artificial Intelligence: Education

Paul Farrelly: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether his Department plans to (a) update curriculums and (b) develop new courses to take  account the evolution of artificial intelligence.

Anne Milton: Ensuring that our children have the digital and computing skills needed for the future is a key priority of this government. Demand for high-level skills in computing will continue to grow in the years ahead and will be crucial to supporting a successful economy.To meet the demand for high-level skills in computing, the government has introduced computing as a statutory national curriculum subject at all four key stages and reformed the computer science GCSE and A Level. The reformed GCSE, introduced for first teaching from September 2016, aims to ensure that all pupils understand the fundamental principles of computer science, including knowledge on artificial intelligence, programming, coding and data representation. The reformed A level places emphasis on programming, algorithms and problem solving.In March 2018, my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education, committed to making no further changes to the national curriculum beyond those that had already been announced in response to teacher feedback. Currently there are no plans to make further changes to the national curriculum during this Parliament. In November 2018 DfE launched the National Centre for Computing Education (NCCE), backed by £84 million in new funding. The NCCE is run by a coalition of STEM Learning, the British Computing Society and Raspberry Pi and supported by industry. The department is introducing T Levels as a high quality, technical alternative to A levels. The first T levels will start in September 2020, with all routes available from September 2022. Digital is one of the first subjects that will be rolled out in 2020. The department is also designing new apprenticeship standards that are more responsive to the needs of business both now and in the future, ensuring that employers can secure the skills they need to succeed. Finally, the government recently announced further investment to drive up skills in artificial intelligence (AI) and data science and support more adults to upskill and retrain to progress in their careers or find new employment.Up to 2,500 people from underrepresented groups will have the opportunity to retrain and become experts in data science and AI, thanks to a £13.5 million investment to fund new degree and Masters conversion courses and scholarships at UK academic institutions over the next three years.

Pupils: Health

Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the Written Statement of 8 July 2019, Children’s health and wellbeing in schools, HCWS 1695, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of introducing a compulsory healthy schools rating scheme.

Nadhim Zahawi: Our healthy schools rating scheme is designed to recognise and encourage schools’ contributions to pupils’ health and wellbeing. It celebrates the positive actions that schools are taking in terms of healthy eating and physical activity and aims to help schools identify useful next steps in their provision.The government stated in the first chapter of the Childhood Obesity Plan that this will be a voluntary scheme. We do not believe that it is appropriate to introduce a new compulsory duty on schools in this area.The scheme focuses on 4 overarching areas that we believe are important to children’s healthy living (food education, school food standards, participation in physical education and active travel to school). We welcome feedback to help us improve the scheme during its first year.

Mental Health: Training

Ruth George: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care on the provision of professional training for people who work therapeutically with children and young people on mental health issues; and if he will make a statement.

Nick Gibb: My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education, meets regularly with Cabinet colleagues to discuss the Department for Education's agenda. The Department for Education committed in 2017, jointly with the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC), to an ambitious programme to improve children and young people’s mental health provision in and around schools and colleges. This is highlighted in the Government’s response to the green paper, ‘Transforming Children and Young People’s Mental Health Provision’. Further information on the Government’s proposals can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/transforming-children-and-young-peoples-mental-health-provision-a-green-paper.Issues related to the professional training of those who work therapeutically with children and young people on mental health issues are the responsibility of the DHSC.

School Teachers' Review Body

Layla Moran: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether he has received the 29th report of the School Teachers’ Review Body.

Nick Gibb: The School Teachers’ Review Body (STRB) has recently submitted its 29th report to my right Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education, in respect of the 2019 pay award. The Government is carefully considering the report and the STRB recommendations and will publish a response as soon as possible.

Design and English Baccalaureate: Education

Paul Farrelly: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment he has made of the correlation between the number of students studying (a) design and technology and (b) the English Baccalaureate.

Nick Gibb: Following an assessment, the Department has found no evidence to demonstrate that entries to the design and technology (D&T) GCSE have fallen as a direct consequence of an increase in students taking the English Baccalaureate (EBacc). The gradual decline in the proportion of pupils entered for D&T GCSE started in 2001, when the subject became non-compulsory at Key Stage 4. The EBacc was first introduced in 2010. The EBacc encourages young people to take core academic subjects, keeping their options open for further study and future careers. The Department is clear that it should be studied alongside other subjects, such as D&T, and it has been designed to allow pupils to do this. The Department has reformed D&T GCSE so that it has a greater emphasis on the iterative design process, something that subject experts advise is at the core of contemporary industry practice. It also includes more on the technical knowledge required, including cutting edge technology and processes. These structural changes make it more accessible to pupils and easier for teachers to deliver whilst maintaining the rigour and challenge the Department expects of a GCSE subject. It will take time for the new GCSE to embed given the significant changes. The Department continues to attract more graduates into teaching and have increased the bursary offered for most D&T teacher trainees through the introduction of a £12,000 bursary for trainees with a 2:2 or higher. Previously those with a 2:1 received £9,000 and those with a 2:2 received no bursary.

Universities: Racial Discrimination

Gordon Marsden: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of trends in the level of reports of racism against students and staff in UK universities in the last five years.

Gordon Marsden: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what discussions (a) he and (b) Ministers in his Department have had with representatives from (i) Universities UK, (ii) other education sector bodies, (iii) trades unions representing staff, (iv) student unions and (v) NUS on the effect of incidences of racism directed at their members in the last 12 months.

Chris Skidmore: The government takes all forms of hate crime extremely seriously. There is no place in our society - including within higher education – for hatred or for any form of harassment, discrimination or racism. The government is working closely with Universities UK (UUK) and the Office for Students (OfS) to support work to address racism and other forms of harassment in higher education, including the implementation of UUK’s Taskforce recommendations. The government has also tasked the OfS to support this work, and over £2 million has been invested in projects tackling hatred and harassment. The department regularly meets stakeholders and representative bodies about student experience issues including racism, hate crime and harassment. Officials hold quarterly meetings with the OfS and UUK to discuss how to make progress on harassment and hate crime, including racism within the sector. In addition, I have recently held meetings with the Union of Jewish Students and Jewish student representatives about antisemitism on campus. The government expects providers to keep records of incidents disclosed to them and to act swiftly to investigate and address them. It is important to recognise that under-reporting is common. Higher education providers should look at how they can continue to break down barriers to reporting, in spite of the potential for it to lead to spikes in disclosures, and to make sure that students and staff feel safe and able to disclose racist incidents. Evaluation to date has shown that progress has been made but that there is still more to do. On 7 January 2019; I wrote to the Equality and Human Rights Commission to welcome their Inquiry into Racial Harassment in Higher Education Institutions. I look forward to the new evidence that this inquiry will bring and will review its findings carefully.

Higher Education: Equality

Gordon Marsden: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of equality and diversity training provided by higher education institutions; and if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of making that training mandatory.

Chris Skidmore: The government is committed to tackling inequalities. That is why, in October 2018, my right. hon. Friend, the Prime Minister, launched measures to tackle barriers facing ethnic minorities in the workplace, including a new Race at Work Charter and a consultation on ethnicity pay reporting.Like all employers, higher education providers have responsibilities under the Equality Act (2010) in relation to their staff. The government expects providers to comply fully with their obligations. As autonomous and independent institutions, it is for individual providers to ensure that the training they provide is appropriate.The Equality Challenge Unit (part of Advance HE) has published guidance for higher education providers on embedding equality and diversity into HR policies. The Race Equality Charter also helps higher education providers to identify and address institutional and cultural barriers standing in the way of minority ethnic staff and students. The Athena SWAN Charter recognises work undertaken to address gender equality.The regulator, the Office for Students (OfS), and its predecessor, have provided over £4.7 million in funding for projects tackling sexual harassment, online harassment and hate-based harassment. This includes projects with a focus on developing and providing training for both staff and students on matters such as bystander intervention and handling of reports and disclosures.In guidance to the OfS, the government has asked the regulator to positively engage with work to counter harassment and hate-crime and to make campuses places of tolerance for all students, and work with providers on equalities issues.

Universities: Ethnic Groups

Gordon Marsden: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the (a) terms and conditions for, (b) recruitment and (c) career advancement of BAME members of staff at UK universities.

Chris Skidmore: Despite recent progress in staff representation and progression, for example improvements in the number of women in leadership positions in higher education (HE), there is more to be done to create a HE workforce that is representative of British society.On 1 February 2019, the government announced measures to tackle inequalities and improve outcomes for underrepresented groups in HE. These measures include asking the HE sector to take action to eliminate ethnic disparities in their workforce and support better outcomes for ethnic minority staff. UK Research and Innovation will also be commissioning a review to understand and address equality and diversity disparities in research and innovation funding. HE providers are independent, autonomous bodies and are responsible for decisions about who they employ and the terms and conditions of employment they offer. Like every employer they must meet their obligations under the Equality Act 2010 and give due consideration to the way their recruitment, retention and promotion practises affect different sections of their communities and staff at different stages of their career. The Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers states that ‘diversity and equality must be promoted in all aspects of the recruitment and career management of researchers’. We expect to see this commitment reinforced as a revised Concordat is published in Autumn 2019. The Race Equality Charter also helps HE providers to identify and address institutional and cultural barriers that may be impacting on minority ethnic staff and students. By improving the representation, progression and success of minority ethnic staff within HE we can ensure that everyone who has the potential to thrive at university, both as a student and as a member of staff, does so.

Ministry of Justice

Wellingborough Prison: Contracts

Richard Burgon: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 21 May 2019 to Question 253599 on Glen Pava Prison and Wellingborough Prison: Contracts, on what date his Department plans to launch the mini-competition for the operation of the prison at Wellingborough.

Robert Buckland: The number of people convicted for offences under s41 of the Dentistry Act 1984 (“Unregistered person carrying on the business of dentistry”) over the last 3 years was 2; 1 in each of 2016 and 2017. It is not possible to identify whether these offences were specific to teeth whitening in centrally held data on court proceedings.

Legal Representation

Richard Burgon: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what safeguards his Department have put in place to ensure that claimants using the Litigant in Person portal are (a) informed of and (b) able to enforce their legal rights.

Paul Maynard: The Government is working closely with a broad group of expert stakeholders to develop a new accessible IT Service. This will support and enable both represented and unrepresented claimants to progress Road Traffic Accident related personal injury claims under the new small claims track limit of £5,000. The Government’s key design principle in approaching the development of the new IT service is that that the claimant and access to justice must be at the heart of the process and the new service must be as simple and efficient as possible for unrepresented claimants to make, progress and settle their claims online without the need to go to court. In addition, unrepresented claimants will also have access to a bespoke alternative dispute resolution scheme, which will enable them to gain, at no cost to themselves, an independent view on the liability decision made by the defendant insurer. The service will also provide claimants with guidance, so that claimants can understand and navigate the IT Service without unnecessary delay.Claimants however, will not be precluded from having legal representation at any point of the process, but will be liable to pay for a lawyer.

Legal Aid Scheme

Richard Burgon: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many not-for-profit legal aid providers provided legal services in each region in each year since 2010.

Richard Burgon: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what records his Department holds on the number of cases started by law centres in each year since 2010.

Paul Maynard: LAA officeFinancial Year2010/112011/122012/132013/142014/152015/162016/172017/182018/192019/20 as at JulyBirmingham54393327241716171811Brighton32202119201415141110Bristol57413925221616151010Cambridge6054472422181614129Cardiff55555636363330302929Leeds49373528302530262613Liverpool22201916151313131410London987874981018080747668Manchester79736966635247443827Newcastle33302515151088115Nottingham39332530333130303116Reading181513111611101095Grand Total596495456395397320311295285213 The above table shows the number of not-for-profit solicitor offices located in each region as defined by the Legal Aid Agency, proximate to the area of England and Wales covered by each LAA office. Note that the LAA commissions services on a ‘Procurement Area’ basis. Procurement Areas have been developed based on various local factors; not all can be compared on a like-for-like basis. Individuals are able to access legal advice and services from any provider holding a legal aid contract, this includes from approved legal advice providers located locally or nearby regions. The Legal Aid Agency keeps availability of legal support under constant review and takes urgent action whenever it has concerns. We spent £1.6 billion on legal aid last year and in addition to the Civil Legal Advice Telephone service, we are investing £5m in innovative technologies to help people access legal support wherever they are. Financial YearLaw Centre Starts2010-201131,3532011-201232,0922012-201324,5282013-201414,9482014-201515,3272015-201613,2432016-201712,7522017-201811,8952018-201911,106 The above figures show both New Matter Starts opened under the Civil Legal Help scheme, and cases which commenced receiving a legal aid certificate under the Civil Representation scheme by Law Centres in each year. Figures for Housing Possession Court Duty Scheme Work are absent for the years 2010-2011, 2011-2012 & 2012-2013, as a breakdown of that work is not available in the format that has been requested.

Prisons: Education

Richard Burgon: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the effect of one-year contracts on the (a) quality and (b) oversight of education in prisons.

Robert Buckland: It remains our intention to undertake a full future assessment of the impact of our prison education reforms in due course. This will include the particular impact of the Prison Education Framework and prison education Dynamic Purchasing System. The Education and Employment Strategy, published in May 2018, set out ambitious plans to give prison governors power and control over the education arrangements in their establishments. The Prison Education Framework and prison education Dynamic Purchasing System are key elements of that reform, enabling a governor to determine what their curriculum is, how it is delivered and who delivers it. These arrangements will ensure a tailored and consistent approach to delivery as well as attracting and enabling smaller local suppliers and third sector organisation to participate in delivering a varied and responsive mix of provision to prisoners.

Prisons: Staff

Richard Burgon: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the total number of days of detached duty worked was in each prison where performance was found to be of serious concern in the Annual Prison Performance Ratings 2017-18 in (a) the last six months of 2017 and (b) the last six months of 2018.

Robert Buckland: National Detached Duty is one of the sensible and proportionate measures we take to ensure we run safe and decent regimes in prisons and respond appropriately to any operational issues that arise. The deployment of staff between prisons on National Detached Duty is a regular and normal part of prison resourcing; the number of Prison Officers deployed on National Detached Duty varies from one week to the next in order to reflect operational circumstances. The attached table shows the number of staff deployed through National Detached Duty to the prisons rated as being of serious concern in the Annual Prison Performance Ratings 2017-18 for the last six months of 2017 and 2018. Figures are not included for HMP Peterborough as privately managed prisons are not supported with National Detached Duty. It should be noted that the figures represent the number of staff in place during the week commencing the date shown, it is not known how many days per week that staff would have been deployed. It is only possible to obtain data for days worked at disproportionate cost.



PQ 273819 DD in sites of serious concern
(Excel SpreadSheet, 13.98 KB)

Crown Courts: Bradford

Philip Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the court utilisation rate at Bradford Crown Court in each of the last five years.

Paul Maynard: Court utilisation rates at Bradford Crown Court from April 2015 onwards are detailed in the tables below. Utilisation data prior to April 2015 is incomplete. Bradford Crown Court (figures relate to a subset of the Bradford Combined Court courtrooms that are primarily designed for Crown use.) Available hours (Crown)Total utilisation hours (Crown only)Crown utilisation rateApril – Dec 20157,2104,61864%20169,4156,34267%20179,1555,60461%20188,7555,17559% Bradford Combined Court (All jurisdictions) Available hours (all jurisdictions)Total utilisation hours (all jurisdictions)Utilisation rateApril – Dec 201515,1208,13354%201617,64011,46165%201720,08014,01170%201820,16013,67668% The utilisation quoted is for all jurisdictions (work type) sharing this Crown Court building, and not just for Crown work. Availability is calculated as 2.5 hours per session per working day, and there are generally 2 sessions per working day, giving a notional 5-hour sitting day. Bradford Crown Court data relates to a subset of the Bradford Combined Court courtrooms that are primarily designed for Crown use. Available hours represents the hours notionally available, irrespective of whether subsequently utilised for crime, civil, family or tribunal hearings. The availability figure ignores all short-term unavailability as a result, for example, of being out of use due to local/temporary building work, or use by other organisations. Utilisation is only recorded for hearings in HMCTS-controlled or owned court/hearing rooms where parties were physically present. The utilisation rate is calculated as the total hours used divided by the number of notionally available hours. The data was produced from the HMCTS Performance Database on 8 July 2019. Although care is taken when processing and analysing the data, the details are subject to inaccuracies inherent in any large-scale case management system and is the best data available

Crown Courts: Bradford

Philip Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how much was money was spent by his Department on constructing a secure dock in Bradford Crown Court.

Paul Maynard: The total spent to the supplier on the secure dock for Bradford Combined Court was £56,576.54 We are committed to keeping our courts, and all those that use them, secure and safe and the installation of a secure dock at Bradford Crown Court is part of those efforts.

Magistrates' Courts: Greater London

Philip Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the court utilisation rate was at (a) Camberwell Green and (b) Croydon Magistrates Court in each of the last two years.

Paul Maynard: Court utilisation rates are provided in the table below. Camberwell Green Magistrates’ and Youth CourtBuilding utilisation rateJan – Dec 201775%Jan – Dec 201866%Croydon Magistrates’ CourtBuilding utilisation rateJan – Dec 201765%Jan – Dec 201861%  The utilisation quoted is for all jurisdictions (work type) sharing the Magistrates' Court building, and not just for Magistrates' work. Availability is calculated as 2.5 hours per session per working day, and there are generally 2 sessions per working day, giving a notional 5-hour sitting day.Available Hours represents the hours notionally available, irrespective of whether subsequently utilised for crime, civil, family or tribunal hearings. The Utilisation Rate represents the total utilisation of the notional capacity of each venue, of which magistrates court hearings will therefore only be a subset. The availability figure ignores all short-term unavailability as a result, for example, of being out of use due to local/temporary building work, or use by other organisations. Utilisation is only recorded for hearings in HMCTS-controlled or owned Court/hearing rooms where parties were physically present. The utilisation rate is calculated as the total hours used divided by the number of notionally available hours. The data was produced from the HMCTS Performance Database on 8 July 2019.Although care is taken when processing and analysing the data, the details are subject to inaccuracies inherent in any large-scale case management system and is the best data that is available.

Magistrates' Courts: Camberwell and Peckham

Philip Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what progress he has made on plans to relocate of the work of Camberwell Green Magistrates' Court to other courts following the closure of that court; and if he will make a statement.

Paul Maynard: The decision to close Camberwell Green Magistrates’ Court was not taken lightly and followed a public consultation that concluded the local community will have reasonable access to alternative courts. Hearings for those under the age of 18 have already been relocated to Bromley Magistrates’ Court and plans are being finalised to transfer the remaining workload to Croydon Magistrates’ Court and Lavender Hill Magistrates’ Court. Building works to provide additional court capacity are due to take place at Croydon later this year. We anticipate this will require the temporary relocation of court operations from Croydon as the work is completed and we are in process of engaging with court users to assist with the development of these plans.

Family Courts

Philip Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the criteria was for the selection of people to join the review on how the family courts protect children and parents in cases of domestic abuse and other serious offences announced on 21 May 2019; whether one of the criterion was equality of gender representation; for what reason that selection did not include representatives of fathers or men; and if he will make a statement.

Paul Maynard: The members of the panel established to gather evidence on the protections provided by the family courts in cases involving domestic abuse and other serious offences were appointed for their expertise on the issue. The panel includes the pre-eminent academics; senior judiciary; Women’s Aid to represent victims; the Chief Social Worker and the Association of Children’s Lawyers to represent practitioners. The panel will launch a public call for evidence open to all individuals and organisations, and is considering other mechanisms for gathering the full range of views on the issues.

Convictions: Dental Services

Mr Gregory Campbell: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people have been convicted for illegally administering teeth whitening processes in the past three years.

Robert Buckland: The number of people convicted for offences under s41 of the Dentistry Act 1984 (“Unregistered person carrying on the business of dentistry”) over the last 3 years was 2; 1 in each of 2016 and 2017. It is not possible to identify whether these offences were specific to teeth whitening in centrally held data on court proceedings.

Offensive Weapons: Convictions

Neil O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many and what proportion of people convicted of possession of an offensive weapon for whom it was a (a) a first, (b) a second, (c) a third and (d) a fourth or more conviction for this offence, did not receive an immediate custodial sentence in each year since 2007.

Robert Buckland: Please find the response in the table attached.



Table 
(Excel SpreadSheet, 19.72 KB)

Secure Schools: Medway

Mrs Emma Lewell-Buck: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how much (a) capital and (b) revenue funding will be allocated to Oasis Charitable Trust to operate Medway secure school for the next academic year, which Government budget line that funding will come from; and what the duration of the contract will be.

Mrs Emma Lewell-Buck: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, on what date he plans to close Medway secure training centre to prepare for its reopening as a secure school.

Edward Argar: Earlier this month we were delighted to announce that Oasis, which runs 52 Academies with 30,000 students across England, have been selected to operate the first secure school in Medway. They have been appointed to preopening, and we will now work with Oasis to develop the operating model for the secure school, and subject to progress, will then agree the arrangements to operate the secure school next year. We are investing c. £5m investment to repurpose the existing site, which will include extensive refurbishment of classrooms and residential areas. The provider will be awarded an annual budget of c. £9m to operate it. Both capital and revenue costs will be funded by MOJ. Medway Secure Training Centre will close in early 2020 so that it can be re-purposed to allow the first secure school to open.

Young Offenders: Restraint Techniques

Mrs Emma Lewell-Buck: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, on what date he (a) received and (b) plans to publish Charlie Taylor’s report on the use of pain-inducing restraint on children.

Edward Argar: Charlie Taylor undertook to submit his findings and recommendations on the use of pain-inducing techniques in the restraint of children in the secure estate by the Summer, and I expect to receive his report shortly. The Department will of course need to consider Charlie Taylor’s findings and recommendations carefully and we will publish both the report and the Government response as soon as we have done so.

Prisons

Paul Farrelly: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the findings of HM Chief Inspector of Prisons for England and Wales Annual Report 2018-19, what steps he is taking to tackle (a) increased violence, (b) mental health problems and (c) drugs problems in prisons.

Robert Buckland: We are taking urgent action to tackle violence in prisons, alongside reforms to overhaul the system to focus on the rehabilitation of offenders. Investment in additional prison officers and the introduction of Keyworkers enables prison officers to mentor, challenge and support a small caseload of prisoners away from violence and reoffending. The Challenge, Support and Intervention Plan (CSIP) has, since November 2018, been mandated for use in all establishments. CSIP provides a case management model to help staff to manage violent prisoners and those identified as posing a raised risk of being violent. Violence against our staff is unacceptable. The Assaults on Emergency Workers (Offences) Act came into force on 13 November which has increased the penalty – from 6 to 12 months - for those who assault emergency workers including prison officers. In order to improve support for prisoners with mental health needs, we have rolled out improved suicide and self-harm prevention training and over 25,000 new and existing prison staff have completed some of this training. We have also awarded the Samaritans a grant of £500,000 each year for the next three years, to continue to support the Listeners’ scheme. For those prisoners requiring transfer to secure hospitals for mental health treatment, we are working collaboratively with Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS), Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and NHS England (NHSE) to improve the transfer process. On 20th June we also announced the development of a Health and Justice Plan which will bring together a coherent, holistic picture of the full offender health journey, from the point of arrest through to release. Our Drugs Taskforce is working with law enforcement and health partners across government to restrict the supply of drugs, reduce demand and build recovery from substance misuse through the national Prison Drugs Strategy. We have invested £70 million to improve safety, security and decency, allowing us to fund new security scanners, improve searching techniques, and introduce phone-blocking technology. We have made it a criminal offence to possess psychoactive substances in prison and trained more than 300 sniffer dogs to detect these drugs. Additionally, our £9 million joint-funded Ministry of Justice, HMPPS, DHSC and NHSE Drug Recovery Prison pilot at HMP Holme House is testing and evaluating innovative approaches to tackle drugs in prison and help prisoners improve their chances of recovery.

Translation Services

Yasmin Qureshi: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how much HM Courts and Tribunals Service has spent on (a) courts translation services and (b) Capita Translation Services in each of the last 10 financial years.

Paul Maynard: HMCTS was created on the 1 April 2011. We are unable to provide information for financial years prior to that date. This question has been interpreted to mean costs for all language services, both translators, and interpreters provided in a court setting, and for printed materials available in HMCTS buildings. The contract with Capita commenced on 30th January 2012, and ended on 30th October 2016. The new Language Services Contracts commenced on the 31st October 2016, with services provided by thebigword Group Limited, Clarion Interpreting and The Language Shop. The spend by Her Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service on courts translations services was as follows, by financial year:YearTotal Cost (£)Capita Charges (£)2011-12 (Commenced from 30th January 2012)7,080,3321,4402012-134,955,5101,083,1812013-147,305,3246,501,8702014-157,431,0457,182,8662015-167,111,9496,548,0232016-179,683,7944,264,196 Our most recent statistics show language service requests are at their highest since the new contract was introduced in 2016 the clear majority – 97% - were fulfilled. It is vital that victims, witnesses and defendants understand what is happening in court to ensure justice is done, and we will always take steps to ensure a qualified interpreter is provided when needed.

Legal Aid Scheme: Solicitors

Jo Stevens: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment his Department has made of the effect of the reform of legal aid on average annual earnings of legal aid solicitors.

Paul Maynard: On 7 February 2019, the Government published the Post Implementation Review (PIR) of Part 1 of The Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012:https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/post-implementation-review-of-part-1-of-laspo The review did not look at the earnings of individual solicitors, but reported instead on the impact on legal aid providers, including solicitors firms and individual barristers.

Criminal Proceedings: Legal Aid Scheme

Jo Stevens: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment his Department has made of the financial impact on defendants of the introduction of an upper limit on disposable income for people claiming legal aid for Crown Court representation.

Paul Maynard: On 7 February 2019, the Government published the Post Implementation Review (PIR) of Part 1 of The Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 which included an assessment of the impact of the £37,500 disposable income threshold introduced at the Crown Court: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/post-implementation-review-of-part-1-of-laspoAlongside the PIR, the Government also published its Legal Support Action Plan in which it announced a comprehensive review of the wider legal aid eligibility regime; this will include the Crown Court thresholds. The review is expected to conclude by Summer 2020 after which we will publish a full consultation paper setting out our future policy proposals in this area. We will seek to implement any final recommendations as soon as practicable following public consultation.

Legal Aid Scheme: Housing

Mr Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate he has made of the number of local authority areas that do not have a housing legal aid provider in England and Wales.

Paul Maynard: The LAA commissions services on a ‘Procurement Area’ basis. Procurement Areas align to one or a number of combined local authority areas and have been developed based on various local factors. Individuals are not limited to accessing legal advice providers in the Procurement Area where they live and may access services from providers located in neighbouring local authorities, or at other contracted legal advice providers located locally. The LAA has recently tendered for new face-to-face housing contracts across the 134 housing and debt procurement areas across England and Wales. As of 30 June 2019, there is at least one provider offering housing and debt services in all but 4 procurement areas, and the LAA is considering how to secure provision in these areas and will set out next steps shortly. Legal advice is still available in these areas through the Civil Legal Advice telephone service and irrespective of a client’s location in England and Wales, legal advice for housing remains available through a telephone service as well. The following table shows the number of providers in each of the locations enquired about, and the number of procurement areas which fall within each. The Legal Aid Agency keeps availability of legal support under constant review and takes urgent action whenever it has concerns. Geographical Location# of Procurement Areas# of ProvidersLondon30235Wales835Other96212 This government spent £1.6 billion on legal aid last year and in addition to the Civil Legal Advice Telephone service, we are investing £5m in innovative technologies to help people access legal support wherever they are.

Prisons: Blood Diseases

Richard Burgon: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many (a) prison officers (b) other prison staff contracted a blood-borne virus at work in each year since 2010.

Robert Buckland: Since December 2017 any staff who are potentially exposed to blood and other body fluids are able to call our Body Fluid Exposure and Sharps Injury 24/7 telephone helpline to obtain prompt medical advice. If the employee is advised to attend A&E this signifies that the body fluid exposure is high risk and medical assessment by A&E is required to obtain blood for serum save and to assess suitability for post exposure prophylaxis and/or Hepatitis B injection. Should Post Exposure Prophylaxis (PEP) be required, the member of staff will call the Body Fluid Exposure and Sharps Injury helpline with details of treatment they have received. Follow up testing for Blood Borne Virus (BBV) is provided for all injured staff to determine if they have contracted a BBV, however, staff are not required to report if they have contracted a blood borne virus at work and the data is therefore it is not possible to report data with any certainty. If an employee were to contract a Blood Borne Virus from an occupational exposure and had reported this to the Body Fluid Exposure and Sharps Injury helpline (provided by HMPPS’ Occupational Health supplier Optima Health) then HMPPS are required to be made aware under RIDDOR (Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013) with the employees consent. None of these cases have been reported to date.

Treasury

Railways: Midlands

Vernon Coaker: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Transport on the funding of the outline business case for the Midlands Rail hub; and if he will make a statement.

Elizabeth Truss: The Chancellor of the Exchequer and the Secretary of State for Transport regularly discuss a variety of transport proposals. The Department for Transport is currently reviewing the Strategic Outline Business Case for the proposed Midlands Rail Hub, including the request for funding to undertake an Outline Business Case.

Aviation: Taxation

Paul Farrelly: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent assessment he has made of the potential merits of introducing a green tax on air travel which would be invested in environmentally-friendly transport infrastructure.

Robert Jenrick: The UK plays key role in multilateral action on aviation emissions, such as the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA), and levies a tax on aviation, Air Passenger Duty (APD), one of very few countries to do so. Whilst APD is not primarily an environmental tax, it ensures that a sector responsible for approximately 7% of UK greenhouse gas emissions paid tax of £3.6 billion in 2018-19 on its activities. This is particularly important in the absence of any duty on commercial aviation fuel or VAT on airline tickets, in line with international convention. APD receipts fund our vital public services and other Government priorities, including tackling climate change.

Cash Genie

Sandy Martin: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps have been taken to ensure customers of Ariste Holding Ltd trading as Cash Genie are able to receive the compensation awarded by the Financial Conduct Authority following the company's voluntary liquidation.

Sandy Martin: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will take steps to ensure that compensation awarded by the FCA from a financial company to their customers cannot be avoided by the company entering voluntary insolvency.

John Glen: This is a matter for the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), which is operationally independent from Government. The question has been passed on to the FCA. The FCA will reply directly to the member for Ipswich by letter. A copy of the letter will be placed in the Library of the House.

Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government

Anti-Muslim Hatred Working Group

Seema Malhotra: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether he plans to publish the minutes of the Anti-Muslim Hatred Working Group meetings.

Mrs Heather Wheeler: The Working Group does not plan to publish the minutes of its meetings. Communities and stakeholders are regularly kept up to date on the Groups’ work.

Anti-Muslim Hatred Working Group

Seema Malhotra: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how many meetings the Anti-Muslim Hatred Working Group has held.

Mrs Heather Wheeler: The Working Group holds quarterly meetings. The membership of the Anti-Muslim Hatred Working Group has recently been refreshed. The first meeting of the refreshed Group was held in April 2019. A second meeting is scheduled to take place in July 2019.

Local Government Finance: Cambridgeshire

Ms Lisa Forbes: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what data his Department holds on the amount of central government funding provided to (a) Cambridgeshire County Council and (b) Peterborough City Council, in each year since 2010.

Rishi Sunak: Due to changes in the finance and function of local government, there has been no consistent measure of central government funding since 2010. The Department’s preferred measure of local government funding is Core Spending Power. Core Spending Power is comparable over the period 2015-16 to 2019-20 and published on the Department's website: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/core-spending-power-final-local-government-finance-settlement-2019-to-2020.

Buildings: Fire Prevention

Emma Dent Coad: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to the oral contribution of the Minister of State for Housing of 6 June 2019, Official Report, column 331, if he will provide details of the work the Government is doing on stay put advice in fire safety policy.

Kit Malthouse: Following the Grenfell Tower fire in June 2017, the National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC) published comprehensive guidance for buildings, such as those with Aluminium Composite Material (ACM) cladding, on what arrangements and interim measures should be established where “stay put” has been suspended. The NFCC carefully reviewed its guidance and reaffirmed the principle of “stay put” where it is appropriate. Its statement on this can be viewed at http://www.nationalfirechiefs.org.uk/Stay-Put-position.Building Regulation guidance, Approved Document B (Fire safety) has been clarified to make clear the principles which underpin guidance on the stay-put strategy adopted within blocks of flats. This is available on-line at https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/814934/Approved_Document_B__fire_safety__volume_1_dwellinghouses_2019.pdf.However, the Government recognises that questions have been raised about means of escape from blocks of flats and we have commenced a technical review of Building Regulation guidance through a call for evidence on 18 December 2018. This call for evidence identified topics which were candidates for inclusion in the review of Approved Document B (Fire Safety). One of the topics was means of escape in blocks of flats, including the stay-put approach. The call for evidence closed on 15 March 2019 and the Department is in the process of reviewing the evidence provided.

National Holocaust Memorial Centre and Learning Service

Sir Edward Leigh: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answers of 16 June 2017 and 19 June 2019 to Questions 106178 and 263702 on the National Holocaust Memorial Centre and Learning Service, who raised the possibility of Victoria Tower Gardens as a location for the Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre in early autumn 2015 on behalf of the UK Holocaust Memorial Foundation; and for what reason that possibility was not discussed first by that Foundation’s board.

Mrs Heather Wheeler: In November 2015 the property sub-committee of the UK Holocaust Memorial Foundation was asked to undertake a search of Government sites. The property sub-committee raised Victoria Tower Gardens as a possible site at the Foundation meeting on 13 January 2016.

UK Shared Prosperity Fund

Grahame Morris: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, for what reasons the consultation on the UK Shared Prosperity Fund has been delayed; and what the new timetable is for its commencement.

Jake Berry: The UK Shared Prosperity Fund is the Government’s manifesto commitment to reduce inequalities between communities across our four nations by raising productivity, once we have left the EU.The Government recognises the importance of reassuring local areas on the future of local growth funding once we have left the EU and providing clarity on the UK Shared Prosperity Fund.The Government has over the past year, held 25 stakeholder engagement events across the UK with representatives from a breadth of sectors, in order to aid policy development. The consultation will build upon these conversations.The Government has now reached agreement with the EU on an extension until 31 October at the latest, with the option to leave earlier as soon as a deal has been ratified. We believe that leaving with a deal is the best outcome and remain focused on ensuring our smooth and orderly withdrawal from the EU. It is right, however, that we also continue to prepare for all scenarios. Therefore, the Government continues to review our approach to consulting on the UK Shared Prosperity Fund accordingly.Government has been working closely with interested parties across the UK whilst developing the UK Shared Prosperity Fund and will consult widely.

Buildings: Insulation

Shabana Mahmood: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether he plans to provide financial support to leaseholders with properties cladded with a flammable material and which are less than 18 metres in height.

Shabana Mahmood: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what plans he has to provide financial support to leaseholders of properties cladded with non aluminium composite materials that are flammable.

Shabana Mahmood: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what recent assessment he has made of the risk to public safety of flammable cladding materials on leasehold properties that are not covered by the Government's support scheme for private high rise residential properties.

Shabana Mahmood: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether his Department will be providing financial support to leaseholders replacing flammable cladding on buildings of less than 18 metres in height.

Kit Malthouse: The Government has committed to fully fund the replacement of unsafe Aluminium Composite Material (ACM) cladding on private sector high-rise (over 18 metres) residential buildings, except where a warranty claim has been accepted. Non-ACM cladding system costs or other structural works not directly related to the remediation of ACM cladding systems will not be part of the fund.Government intervention to provide funding for the removal of unsafe ACM cladding on private sector high-rise residential buildings is wholly exceptional. It is based on the unparalleled fire risk ACM poses. Buildings over 18 meters tall are classified as high-rise and are subject to tougher building regulation restrictions as firefighting is more complex. This is why the Government has focused on these buildings.Government intervention does not remove responsibility for overall building safety from the building owner and if fire safety risks are uncovered, they must remedy them, or potentially face enforcement action from the local authority. We have made it clear that building owners should protect leaseholders from bearing the costs of remediation, and that the clearest way to ensure safety is to remove unsafe materials.

Buildings: Insulation

Shabana Mahmood: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether he plans to ensure that all residential properties are not cladded with flammable materials.

Kit Malthouse: On 1 October 2018, we announced a ban on the use of combustible materials on external walls of high-rise buildings (above 18 metres). The detail of this ban was announced on 29 November 2018. It has been delivered through changes to building regulations and limits materials available to products achieving a European classification of Class A1 or A2-s1,d0. The Government have been clear to building owners that the clearest way to ensure safety is to remove unsafe materials.

Temporary Accommodation

Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to Justlife's report or April 2018, Lifting the Lid on Hidden Homelessness: A New Analysis and its estimate that over 51,500 homeless households are living in bed and breakfast accommodation in England, if he will make an assessment of the accuracy of that estimate; and if he will make a statement.

Mrs Heather Wheeler: The ‘Lifting the Lid on Hidden Homelessness’ report asked local authorities for the number of tenants claiming housing benefit for bed and breakfast in a financial year. The MHCLG experimental statistics on statutory homelessness record the stock of households in temporary accommodation (including bed and breakfast) at the end of each quarter who are owed a homelessness duty. The 51,500 figure in the Justlife report includes anyone who has spend any time in bed and breakfast accommodation over the financial year, however short. MHCLG figures for the 2015/16 financial year are shown below:Number of households in bed and breakfast hotels 2015/16 2015Q35,910   Q45,120  2016Q15,960   Q26,490   The Government is committed to reducing homelessness and rough sleeping. No one should ever have to sleep rough. That is why we have made a manifesto commitment to halve rough sleeping by 2022 and end it altogether by 2027, placing a priority on preventing people from becoming homeless in the first place.Last summer we published the cross-government Rough Sleeping Strategy. This sets out an ambitious £100 million package to help people who sleep rough now, but also puts in place the structures that will end rough sleeping once and for all. The Government has now committed over £1.2 billion to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping over the spending review period.

Temporary Accommodation

Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to collect data on households living in unsupported temporary accommodation who are homeless and not currently included in official homelessness statistics.

Mrs Heather Wheeler: The Government is committed to reducing homelessness and rough sleeping. No one should ever have to sleep rough. That is why we have made a manifesto commitment to halve rough sleeping by 2022 and end it altogether by 2027, placing a priority on preventing people from becoming homeless in the first place.Last summer we published the cross-government Rough Sleeping Strategy. This sets out an ambitious £100 million package to help people who sleep rough now, but also puts in place the structures that will end rough sleeping once and for all. The Government has now committed over £1.2 billion to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping over the spending review period. The Homelessness Reduction Act (HRA) brings more people such as single homeless households into scope to receive assistance from their local authority. These households were not assisted or reported through the old P1E collection, until the end of March 2018. The HRA has placed additional duties on local authorities to work to prevent and relieve homelessness for all eligible homeless applicants and to secure interim/permanent accommodation for those in priority need. The Department’s new case level data collection system, H-CLIC, since April 2018 includes information on households whose homelessness has been prevented and relieved, as well as those currently in different types of temporary accommodation, including bed and breakfast accommodation and hostels. This data can be found online here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/live-tables-on-homelessness

Homelessness

Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to paragraph 1.6 on page 14 of the National Audit Office's report of Session 2017-18, Homelessness, published on 13 September 2017, what steps his Department is taking to tackle concerns raised in that report that his Department’s measures of homelessness do not capture its full extent; and if he will make a statement.

Mrs Heather Wheeler: Measuring “hidden homelessness” is a complex issue. It will always be difficult by its nature – people are often not in contact with services, and it is challenging to establish everything that is going on in people’s lives.   The Department does collect information on overcrowding and on concealed households (usually defined as single adults or groups of adults, with or without children, who occupy the accommodation with, but do not belong to, the household reference person’s family unit) through the English Housing Survey. Additional information is being collected through this survey to identify people who have experienced homelessness.   The Homelessness Reduction Act brings more people such as single homeless households into scope to receive assistance from their local authority. These households were not assisted or reported through the old P1E collection, until the end of March 2018. Details on these non-priority need, single households often living with friends and family have been captured through the Department’s new case level data collection system, Homelessness Case Level Information Collection (H-CLIC), since April 2018. This data can be found online here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/live-tables-on-homelessness  The new data collection system, H-CLIC, captures information on households approaching for and receiving homelessness assistance, household demographics and the circumstances surrounding their homelessness. This includes any support needs of the homeless household. In time it will enable MHCLG to monitor repeat homelessness where people come back to services. It will help identify more detail on the circumstances of households vulnerable to homelessness and the interventions that are successful in preventing homelessness in the first place.

Temporary Accommodation

Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what plans he has to collate statistics on the number of families who are not owed a statutory duty by a local authority but are living temporarily in bed and breakfast accommodation, private hostels, short-stay houses of multiple occupancy or guesthouses.

Mrs Heather Wheeler: The Homelessness Reduction Act brings more people into scope to receive assistance from their local authority. The Government has now committed over £1.2 billion to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping over the spending review period. A household who has become homeless unintentionally and contains dependent children is considered to be priority need and a local authority has a duty to secure accommodation for these households. A household may have to spend time in temporary accommodation before a final offer of accommodation is made. Details on these priority need, households with children have been captured through the Department’s new case level data collection system, H-CLIC, since April 2018. This data can be found online here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/live-tables-on-homelessness

Loneliness

Stephen Morgan: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to A connected society: A Strategy for tackling loneliness – laying the foundations for change, published 15 October 2018, what progress has been made on his Department's commitment to fund research into the impact of community-led housing and cohousing solutions on loneliness.

Kit Malthouse: We have committed to funding research into housing solutions to tackle loneliness. The research will specifically explore how community-led housing initiatives, including cohousing, can help connect communities.   This commitment was set out in the Government’s strategy paper: 'A connected society: A strategy for tackling loneliness’ https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/a-connected-society-a-strategy-for-tackling-loneliness.   The Department has invited bids for the provision of our Loneliness and Community Led Housing Research.   The aims behind the research are to: evaluate the value for money and impact of housing interventions on loneliness; understand the impact of community-led housing initiatives, including cohousing, on reducing loneliness across all ages; and to explore best practice in housing schemes that promote social cohesion.

Loneliness

Stephen Morgan: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to A connected society: A Strategy for tackling loneliness – laying the foundations for change, published 15 October 2018, what progress has been made on his Department’s commitment to run a series of industry events, conferences and seminars to promote the role of design in wellbeing, including tackling loneliness and to publish case studies and evidence.

Kit Malthouse: Tackling loneliness was a large focus of a community vision event that my Department hosted with 40 Birmingham residents in FebruaryThe Department worked with residents to develop a vision for their homes and neighbourhoods. The Department wanted to use this vision to bring communities together to tackle people's experience of loneliness; which can have a massive impact on their wellbeing.  In February, the Government held the Better Design for Better Places national conference in Birmingham. Attendees explored how to use design to promote and support people's health and well-being through discussions, and the Government selected a case study on tackling loneliness to be presented.   In the keynote speech at the conference, Lord Bourne referenced the importance of creating places which can help to tackle loneliness.

Housing: Construction

Mr Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps he is taking to ensure that housebuilders take account of (a) heatwaves, (b) flash flooding and (c) other effects of climate change in building new homes.

Kit Malthouse: We have built into the planning system, through the NPPF and its accompanying guidance, clear expectations on adaptation and resilience to climate change impacts. All plans should take account of a changing climate, including implications for flood risk, coastal change, water supply, biodiversity, landscapes and rising temperatures.When considering new development in areas which are vulnerable (e.g. to increased flood risk), care should be taken to ensure that risks can be managed through suitable adaptation measures, including through the provision of green infrastructure such as multi-functional sustainable drainage systemsIn the Government’s response to the Environmental Audit Committee’s enquiry into heatwaves we set out our intention to consult on a method for reducing overheating risk in new homes. This will be done alongside the Government’s review into the energy efficiency standards of the Building Regulations.

Planning Permission: Hatfield Peverel

Priti Patel: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to the three planning decisions announced on 8 July 2019 for two sites in Hatfield Peverel, for what reasons (a) the decision was made to remove 10 sites from the Braintree District Council five-year supply position and (b) there was no consultation with interested parties on those planning applications prior to removing those 10 sites; and if he will publish all relevant correspondence and representations he received regarding those 10 sites.

Priti Patel: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to the three planning decisions he announced on 8 July 2019 for the sites Gleneagles Way and Stone Path Drive in Hatfield Peverel, if he will make an assessment of the availability of public transport in Hatfield Peverel.

Priti Patel: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to the three planning decisions announced on 8 July 2019 for two sites in Hatfield Peverel, what steps he is taking to ensure the adequate provision of (a) school places and (b) health services at those sites.

Kit Malthouse: In reaching his decisions on these cases, the Secretary of State took into account the wide range of issues raised, based on the detailed findings of the planning inspector who held an inquiry into these cases, and the further representations made by the various parties. The decision letters set out in detail the Secretary of State’s reasoning and conclusions. They can be found on the Department's website at:https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/planning-applications-called-in-decisions-and-recovered-appealsNow that the decisions have been issued the Secretary of State has no further jurisdiction in these matters, and it would not be appropriate for Ministers to comment further on the reasons for the decisions or the merits of the schemes. Annexed to each decision letter is a schedule of all representations and correspondence received since the close of the inquiry, together with details about how copies of this material may be obtained.

Buildings: Construction

Theresa Villiers: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what discussions have taken place between (a) Ministers and (b) officials in his Department have held with (i) TfL and (ii) the Mayor of London on plans to build on land around High Barnet, Cockfosters and Finchley Central underground stations within the last 12 months.

Kit Malthouse: There have been no discussions between MHCLG and (i) TfL or (ii) the Mayor of London regarding building on land around High Barnet, Cockfosters and Finchley Central underground stations.

Buildings: Construction

Theresa Villiers: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if he will publish correspondence between his Department and (a) TfL and (b) the Mayor of London on plans to build on land around High Barnet, Cockfosters and Finchley Central underground stations.

Kit Malthouse: There has been no correspondence between MHCLG and (a) TfL or (b) the Mayor of London regarding building on land around High Barnet, Cockfosters and Finchley Central underground stations.

Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government: Written Questions

Mr Steve Reed: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, when he plans to respond to Question 268565 on buildings: insulation, tabled by the hon Member for Croydon North on 24 June 2019.

Kit Malthouse: We will respond to the hon Member's question within 7 working days.

Ministry of Defence

EU Defence Policy

Sir Hugo Swire: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what recent assessment she has made of the merits of UK participation in EU defence structures after the UK has left the EU.

Mark Lancaster: As we leave the EU, we remain committed to playing a leading role on Euro-Atlantic security. NATO remains the cornerstone of our defence. Nonetheless, the UK and the EU will continue to face common threats, which are evolving and growing in complexity, and we share the same values. That is why we have agreed the outline terms, through the Political Declaration, of a flexible and scalable future UK-EU security partnership to cooperate as a sovereign third country with EU partners on a case-by-case basis where there is a clear shared interest.

Army

Mr Kevan Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, by what criteria or process her Department chose 82,000 as the optimum number of personnel for the army.

Mark Lancaster: The proposal for a regular Army of 82,000 emerged from work that followed the 2010 Strategic Defence and Security Review.

Type 45 Destroyers: Deployment

Mr Kevan Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many times the UK's six Type 45 destroyers have been put to sea in the last twelve months.

Stuart Andrew: The normal operating cycle of every ship involves them entering different readiness levels depending on their programmes and Departmental planning requirements. From records available, the number of days each Type 45 destroyer has spent at sea between 1 July 2018 and 30 June 2019 is shown below.  Type 45Total number of days at seaHMS DEFENDER118HMS DIAMOND91HMS DRAGON154HMS DUNCAN116HMS DARING0HMS DAUNTLESS0TOTAL479

Joint Strike Fighter Aircraft

Mr Kevan Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many F-35 aircraft are currently available for operations.

Stuart Andrew: 617 Squadron is the UK's first operational frontline F-35 Lightning squadron with an initial complement of nine aircraft capable of undertaking operations from the land.

EU Defence Policy

Sir Hugo Swire: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment he has made of the potential effect on parliamentary accountability of the EU defence structures that the UK has joined since the EU referendum in 2016.

Mark Lancaster: The Government continues to ensure that parliamentary accountability for UK-EU defence cooperation is maintained. In addition to the public speeches made by the Prime Minister and the white paper of last July, the Government provided further clarification in September, in its response to the House of Commons Defence Committee report, on its proposals for a future security partnership with the EU. The Government has also participated in parliamentary debates or hearings on Permanent Structured Cooperation last April, Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) Operation Sophia last June, the European Defence Industrial Development Programme last November and on CSDP missions and operations in May this year. The Government will continue to provide regular updates to both European Scrutiny Committees in Parliament.

Department for Work and Pensions

Social Security Benefits

Frank Field: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 27 June 2019 to Question 268401, what information she holds on the reasons why those 156,000 claimants with deductions from universal credit for non-universal credit debts are not repaying their debts.

Alok Sharma: The table below provides information on why the specified claimants were not repaying their debts. Zero balance**92,776Business as usual/head of work (Includes future instalment confirmation)48,196Awaiting Financial Reconciliation12,452In progress – Awaiting further information (e.g. customer correspondence/contact)4,214Managed by external contractor (Debt collection agency)618Awaiting appeal outcome534Waiting for customer to call back306Other477 *The data provided in this response has been sourced from internal management information and was not intended for public release. It should therefore not be compared to any other, similar data subsequently released by the Department. ** The zero balance category is made up of debts that have been fully repaid, but are yet to be removed from the Debt Manager system. It is important to note that no further recovery action will be taken in these cases

Welfare Assistance Schemes

Frank Field: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will ringfence funding allocated to local authorities for local welfare assistance schemes.

Will Quince: Local welfare assistance schemes is an umbrella term for local welfare provision. Local authorities decide what local provision to provide and at what cost, as they are best placed to understand the needs of their local communities. The Local Government Finance Settlement for 2015-16 identifies a notional amount relating to local welfare provision in each upper-tier and unitary authority’s general grant, totalling £129.6 million for England. The notional allocation for local welfare provision remains at £129.6 million in England in the Local Government Financial Settlement until 2019/20. There are no plans to ringfence this notional allocation.

Personal Independence Payment

Marsha De Cordova: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the Personal Independence Payment Administrative Exercise data release of 4 July 2019, what accounts for the difference between her Department’s original Equality Impact Assessment in 2017 of 14 per cent of claimants being affected following review, and the figures published by her Department showing that only 0.8 per cent of cases have received an increased award after being reviewed.

Justin Tomlinson: Our published estimates were produced before knowing the full detail of which claimants would be eligible for additional payments following the MH legal judgment. There was significant uncertainty around the estimates prior to the start of the administrative exercise in June 2018, from which point we had revised guidance in place to reflect the judgment, having consulted with key stakeholders. Our estimates remain subject to change as we monitor the outcomes of the exercise. We are intent on making sure everyone who is affected by the judgement is identified and are committed to ensuring that disabled people get the support they are entitled to.

Personal Independence Payment

Marsha De Cordova: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the Personal Independence Payment Administrative Exercise data release, published by her Department on 4 July 2019, if she will commission an independent comparative assessment of the estimate of the number of claimants that would be affected in Equality Impact Assessment published in 2017 and the figures published by her Department on 4 July 2019.

Justin Tomlinson: We have no plans to commission an independent assessment. Our original estimates were based on the best available information at the time, and we were clear that they were very likely to change as the guidance implementing the judgement was produced and data was gathered from the administrative exercise to implement it.

Social Security Benefits: Disqualification

Margaret Greenwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to page 43 of the NAO report on the cost of administering benefit sanctions published in 2016, what estimate she has made of the cost of administering conditions and sanctions for social security benefits in the most recent year for which data is available.

Alok Sharma: The information requested is not collated centrally and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.

Personal Independence Payment

Grahame Morris: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 8 July 2019 to Question 272815 on Personal Independence Payment, what assessment he has made of the effect of the quality-driven approach to personal independence payment on the number of cases going to tribunal.

Justin Tomlinson: It is still too early to assess the full impact of this approach. However initial feedback has been positive and the recently published PIP Official Statistics up to April 2019 showed an increase in the proportion of decisions changed at the Mandatory Reconsideration stage since the approach was implemented.

Welfare Assistance Schemes

Mr Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate she has made of the number of local authorities that run local welfare assistance schemes.

Mr Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of the number of people that benefited from local welfare assistance schemes in 2017-18.

Mr Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will reintroduce a cash grant to local authorities for local welfare assistance schemes.

Mr Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of the number of local authorities that have reduced spending on local welfare assistance schemes by more than half since 2015-16.

Alok Sharma: The reforms to the Social Fund in 2013 allowed local authorities in England and the devolved administrations in Scotland and Wales to deliver their own local provision for people who are in need of urgent help. Local authorities are best placed to decide how to target flexible help to support local welfare needs. The Government has no further plans to review provision. We passed funding over to local authorities and devolved administrations from April 2013. This gave them maximum flexibility to deliver services as they see fit according to local needs. The Local Government Finance Settlement for 2015-16 identifies a notional amount relating to local welfare provision in each upper-tier and unitary authority’s general grant, totalling £129.6 million for England. The notional allocation for local welfare provision remains at £129.6 million in England in the Local Government Financial Settlement until 2019/20. There are no plans to ring-fence this notional allocation.

Universal Credit

Margaret Greenwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what proportion of claimants have successfully applied for universal credit (a) once, (b) twice and (c) three or more times in the last 12 months.

Alok Sharma: The proportion of claimants, between July 2018 and June 2019, that have successfully applied for Universal Credita) Once was 91%b) Twice was 7%c) Three or more times was 1% A successful application to Universal Credit is defined as a contract for which at least one statement is provided i.e. has received at least one payment. There are many reasons why a claimant might be required to make a claim on more than one occasion, such as a claimant entering temporary work and then reclaiming at the end of their employment. Notes: Percentages are rounded to the nearest percent.

Personal Independence Payment

Peter Grant: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, for what reasons claimants of personal independence payments who have received a tribunal decision since the Upper Tribunal’s judgments on MH and RJ have been excluded from the administrative review.

Justin Tomlinson: Following the MH and RJ judgments, the Department updated its guidance on Personal Independence Payment (PIP). In June 2018 it began an administrative exercise to identify claimants assessed using previous guidance to identify those who may be entitled to more support under PIP. Claimants who have had a tribunal decision since the judgments are not being reviewed as part of the MH RJ administrative exercise. The tribunals are obliged to apply the law as it stands (including the MH and RJ Upper Tribunal judgments) to all appeals, and to award claimants accordingly. The Department does not have the legal powers to override tribunal decisions.

Sahaviriya Steel Industries UK: Redundancy

Frank Field: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the timetable is for the publication of its final report on the effectiveness of programmes to protect former SSI steelworkers from long-term unemployment.

Alok Sharma: The Sahaviriya Steel Industries (SSI) Task Force, funded by the Government to support individuals and businesses directly affected by the closure of SSI in Redcar, has published 3 annual reports (the most recent in 2018) setting out progress with helping the people affected by the liquidation of SSI. Further details are at: https://www.redcar-cleveland.gov.uk/SSITaskForce The Task Force has commissioned the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to analyse the outcomes of workers affected by the closure. The DWP has been working to identify; quality assure; integrate and securely store and handle data on former SSI UK employees and workers in its supply chain to fulfil the commission of the Task Force. The department’s analysis will innovatively combine data from the official receiver; local tracking data from collected by Job Centre Plus; DWP/HMRC administrative data; and published ONS data. The analysis is currently being finalised and will be published in due course by the Department for Work and Pensions.

Personal Independence Payment

Peter Kyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 8 July 2019 to Questions 272897 and 272898, what assessment she has made of whether the feedback of Presenting Officers has led to (a) an increase in successful mandatory reconsiderations for claimants, (b) more correct decisions resulting in fewer successful appeals and (c) fewer claims reaching appeal stage.

Justin Tomlinson: Feedback from Presenting Officers has contributed to our new approach which includes contacting claimants, where appropriate, to see if there is information that would enable us to change the decision ourselves. To support this, we are investing additional time for communication, evidence gather and review. This approach supports our aim - to make the right decision as early as possible - so claimants don’t need to progress to the Appeal stage. It is still too early to assess the full impact of this approach. However initial feedback has been positive and the recently published PIP Official Statistics up to April 2019 showed an increase in the proportion of decisions changed at the Mandatory Reconsideration stage since the approach was implemented.

Flexible Support Fund

Ruth George: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many applications for funding from the Flexible Support Fund have been received for up-front childcare costs in each of the last 12 months; and how many of those applications have been (a) paid in full, (b) paid in part and (c) refused.

Will Quince: The information requested is not held in a format that can be easily disaggregated and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.

Universal Credit

Ruth George: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people have people on universal credit who have turned down a job offer in the last 12 months have cited lack of affordable childcare as the reason; and how many of those people received (a) a civil penalty and (b) a sanction.

Alok Sharma: On Universal Credit, claimants are able to claim up to 85 per cent of their childcare costs, compared to 70 per cent on the legacy system. Where the initial month’s childcare costs may prevent a claimant from starting work, Jobcentres can use the Flexible Support Fund to help claimants. This is a non-repayable award, which can be used to meet the upfront costs of childcare to help support a claimant into work. Civil Penalties may be imposed by both DWP and Local Authorities, where an individual incurs a recoverable overpayment as a result of failing to provide accurate information as part of their benefit claim or in connection with an award of benefit, and have not taken reasonable steps to correct the error. Civil Penalties are not imposed in the event of a claimant refusing to accept a job offer. The information request about those receiving a sanction is not readily available and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.

Universal Credit

Steve McCabe: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 18 June 2019 to Question 263677, for what reason the letter sent to a universal credit claimant’s journal to confirm an advance payment does not specify the (a) amount to be repaid each month or (b) number of months that the repayments will last; and if he will add that information to that letter.

Alok Sharma: The Department encourages all Universal Credit claimants to actively consider how best to manage their personal budget, with additional advice and support available from work coaches and case managers. When an advance payment is appropriate, claimants decide what percentage of their expected monthly award to apply for and over what period to repay it, up to a maximum of 12 monthly instalments.Claimants have the ability to make the decision for themselves on the time period for repayment. Most claimants (around 85%) choose to repay their advance over a 12-month period, with others repaying in a shorter timeframe.The Department has taken a number of steps to ensure that advances meet the needs of claimants and that recovery arrangements are personalised and reasonable. From October 2019 we are reducing the maximum rate of deductions to 30 per cent and from October 2021 we are increasing the maximum recovery period for advances from 12 to 16 months.Claimants can view their Universal Credit statement online to see how their award is calculated and a breakdown of what deductions are being made.We are committed to keeping all Universal Credit services and processes, under review and will make improvements where necessary.

Universal Credit: Fraud

Steve McCabe: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what information her Department holds on the extent to which fraudulent claims for universal credit have been made by people using a loophole in the online application process to make an application and claim an advance using another person’s information.

Steve McCabe: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what information his Department holds on how much has been spent on investigating fraudulent universal credit claims that have been made by people using a loophole in the online application process to make an application and claim an advance using another person’s information.

Alok Sharma: The Department is committed to bringing fraudsters to justice. Last year we, working alongside local authorities, recovered more than £1.1bn in fraud and error across all benefits and brought almost 5,000 prosecutions in 2017/18. As of June 2019, the Department has received around 42,000 fraud referrals from staff relating to potential fraudulent advance claims, which equates to less than 1 per cent of all Universal Credit claims. Our investigations are ongoing and we are therefore unable to provide details of how many may have used another person’s identity to make their claim, or to quantify the amount spent on investigations of this type. However, any cases in which this has occurred will be treated accordingly, with the continued use of both prosecutions and tough financial penalties to deter this fraudulent behaviour.

Universal Credit: Fraud

Steve McCabe: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what information her Department holds on the proportion of successful universal credit claims which are fraudulent; and how that figure compares to legacy benefits.

Alok Sharma: Under Universal Credit (UC) claimants will only have one claim to benefit, whereas under Legacy, they may have made claims to multiple benefits. It is therefore not possible to draw a direct comparison between the caseloads of UC and Legacy benefits. UC will also incorporate Tax Credits which is currently administered by Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, who record their overpayments differently. The Department is open and transparent about the cost of fraud and error in the benefit system, publishing our National “Fraud and Error in the Benefit System” statistics each year which detail the amount we estimate is lost to both fraud and error across all benefits. Most welfare losses, across Government, arise from claimants failing to report changes of circumstances, Universal Credit (UC) provides a single, digital interface through which claimants can more easily report these changes. As such, once UC is fully rolled out, we expect cross-welfare losses to fraud, error and overpayments to be reduced by around £1 billion per year. UC also allows us to adjust benefit entitlement in line with changing circumstances in real time. Internal and external data matches are increasingly helping to inform benefit payments and alerting staff to check for any undeclared changes in people’s circumstances.As of June 2019, the Department has received around 42,000 fraud referrals from staff relating to potential fraudulent advance claims, which equates to less than 1 per cent of all Universal Credit claims.

Poverty: Children

Mr Philip Hollobone: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make an assessment of the accuracy of the findings of the End Child Poverty Group's report, Local indicators of child poverty, 2017-18, published in May 2019 on child poverty levels in (a) Kettering constituency and (b) England.

Will Quince: This study is based on estimates rather than actual measurements of income. National statistics on the number of people in low income are set out in the annual "Households Below Average Income" publication. The number and proportion of children in low income is not available at local authority or constituency level in this publication because the survey sample sizes are too small to support the production of robust estimates at this geography. In the 3-year estimate leading to 2017/18 absolute child poverty is 2 percentage points lower than in the 3-year estimates leading to 2009/10 for the East Midlands. For England as a whole, absolute child poverty is 4 percentage points lower before housing costs, and 3 percentage points lower after housing costs for the 3-year estimates leading to 2017/18 compared with three year estimates leading to 2009/10. Children growing up in working households are five times less likely to be in poverty, which is why we are supporting families to improve their lives through work. Since 2010 there are over 3.6 million more people in work, and 667,000 fewer children growing up in workless households.

Unemployment

Frank Field: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will (a) make representations to the Office for National Statistics on (a) compiling and (b) publishing monthly data on long-term unemployment in each parliamentary constituency; and (b) allocate funding for the compilation of those statistics.

Alok Sharma: Estimates of the number of people who are unemployed for sub-regional geographies in the UK are compiled by the independent Office for National Statistics (ONS). This is done using the Annual Population Survey (APS), a large household survey of people in the UK. The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) – along with the Department for Education; the Ministry of Defence; Public Health England; the Welsh Government; and the Scottish Government – contributes funding for the ONS to conduct the APS. The department’s officials work with the ONS to offer advice on the design and delivery of the survey. It is not possible to produce robust estimates of the number of people who are long-term unemployed (12 months or more) for parliamentary constituency areas, due to the size of the survey sample at this level of geography. It is also not considered technically feasible to alter the APS to allow for the production of robust monthly estimates of the number long-term unemployed people at parliamentary constituency area. The ONS are working on alternative approaches to producing labour market estimates, as part of the ONS’s Census and Data Collection Transformation Programme. The outcome of this work may enable the requested data to be produced, however this programme is still in its research and development stage. The DWP publishes, via its Stat Xplore website, official statistics on the duration people have claimed Universal Credit by parliamentary constituency area. Guidance on how to extract the information required can be found at:https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/online-help/Getting-Started.html

Personal Independence Payment

Sir Christopher Chope: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when his Department plans to implement the Order made by Judge Ashley in the Poole First Tier Tribunal on 28 May 2019, reference SC238/18/01260, on the awarding of personal independence payment with effect from 17 October 2018 to the person with National Insurance Number YY146593D.

Justin Tomlinson: The decision made by the First Tier Tribunal on 28 May 2019 was implemented for the claimant on 9 July 2019.

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Water: Conservation

Luke Pollard: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to his Department's paper, Water conservation report,  action taken and planned by Government to encourage the conservation of water, published in December 2018, when he plans to publish the consultation paper on water efficiency.

Dr Thérèse Coffey: The Government will publish its call for evidence and consultation on reducing personal water consumption in due course.

Low Emission Zones: Finance

Matthew Pennycook: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how much funding has been allocated to support ultra-low emission zones in England in the (a) current and (b) previous financial year.

Dr Thérèse Coffey: London is the only city considering an Ultra Low Emission Zone. Oxford has proposed a Zero Emission Zone. Oxford City Council has received £50,000 for a feasibility study to consider measures to reduce NO2 levels. It has also received £122,500 for city-wide communication programmes to support achievement of zero-emissions delivery freight, and £128, 500 for testing of low cost Zephyr sensor packages to compare with current sensors and improve data.

Air Pollution: Children

Bill Wiggin: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to protect children from the effect of toxic air on their health.

Dr Thérèse Coffey: The pollutants found in air are not themselves toxic but can cause irritation and their effect can have consequences which exacerbate particular conditions. The Government is committed to tackling air pollution, including reducing impacts on vulnerable groups such as children. We have put in place a £3.5billion plan to improve air quality and reduce harmful emissions and on 14 January 2019, we announced our new world leading Clean Air Strategy, which includes new and ambitious goals, legislation, investment and policies which will help us to clean up our air faster and more effectively. The World Health Organisation has praised the strategy as ‘an example for the rest of the world to follow’.

Nature Conservation

Sir Nicholas Soames: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when he plans to authorise the General Licence for land designated as (a) Special Areas of Conservation and (b) Special Protection Areas.

Dr Thérèse Coffey: In his appearance at the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee hearing on 2nd July 2019, the Secretary of State stated our ambition to have a robust licencing scheme in place by February 2020. The new scheme will include provisions for protected sites.

Forests: Carbon Emissions

Seema Malhotra: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the findings of The global tree restoration potential report, published in Science on 5 July 2019 that there are 1.7 billion hectares of treeless land on which 1.2 trillion native tree saplings would naturally grow, providing immense potential for tree-planting as a cheap and effective strategy to tackle climate change; and if he will make a statement.

Dr Thérèse Coffey: The UK Government recognises the huge potential for nature based solutions in tackling climate change while also supporting biodiversity. Trees are a major contributor to nature-based carbon sequestration. There are other natural sequesters including mangroves, sea grasses, salt marshes, soil and peatlands.Through the UK’s International Climate Finance (ICF, £5.8bn between 2016-2021) the UK funds several programmes in developing countries that use tree-planting as a strategy for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and generating economic benefits for rural communities. For example, Defra’s investments are expected to restore 500,000 hectares of forest generating 70 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions savings. In Brazil, Defra has invested £55m to help rural farmers restore nearly 200,000 hectares of forest in the Amazon, Atlantic Forests, Cerrado and Caatinga biomes through the implementation of low-carbon agricultural practices. Defra has also invested £10 million to restore up to 20,000 hectares of mangrove forest in Madagascar and Indonesia and recently announced a further £12.75m to restore mangroves across Latin America and the Caribbean.

Plastics: Rivers

Seema Malhotra: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the report entitled, Upstream: Microplastics in UK Rivers, published by Greenpeace UK on 18 June 2019, what assessment he has made of the level plastic pollution in UK rivers; and if he will make a statement.

Seema Malhotra: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to (a) prevent plastic entering rivers and (b) remove plastic pollution from rivers.

Dr Thérèse Coffey: Defra is working with the Environment Agency (EA), academics and the UK water industry to understand the scale of the microplastic pollution problem and to establish detection methods to identify, characterise and quantify the types of microplastics entering our rivers. Although there has been substantive research reporting the presence and impacts of microplastics in the marine environment, little is known about their sources, release and impact on freshwaters and their ultimate transport to the marine environment. Defra has commissioned evidence reviews to further understand these issues and will use the outcomes from these and other research to develop policy options/measures/interventions for removing plastic pollution from rivers. There are currently no consistent sampling, collection or assessment methodologies for measuring micro-plastics in various environmental media (sediments, water column or biota), which means that routine monitoring is not practicable. Defra is also working with the EA, academics and water companies to develop methodologies to enable future monitoring of micro-plastics in wastewater, sludge and the water environment. The EA takes steps to stop pollution causing harm where they can clearly attribute the source of the substance, as without this information it is not possible for them to take action. One of the sources of plastic pollution comes from small beads used in industrial processes and EA are working proactively to reduce the release of these small plastics pellets from the industries they regulate. Plastic waste can also provide a source of micro-sized plastics once in the environment. To address this, the Government has set a target to eliminate all avoidable plastic waste within the lifetime of the 25 Year Environment Plan (by 2042) and set aside £20 million for research and development managed through the Plastics Innovation Fund in March 2018. A further £10 million was committed in the 2018 Autumn Budget for continued/additional plastics research and development along with £10 million to pioneer innovative approaches to boosting recycling and reducing litter.

Litter: Tobacco

Andrew Percy: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the effect of discarded cigarettes on ocean plastic pollution.

Andrew Percy: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what plans he has to reduce cigarette end littering.

Dr Thérèse Coffey: The Government has made no specific assessment of the effects of discarded cigarettes on ocean plastic pollution. However, there is some evidence that in marine environments cigarette butts contribute to microplastics. The Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science is working to look at the impact of cigarette butts in the marine environment. This project is due to be completed next year. The Litter Strategy for England was published in April 2017. We are considering how we can ensure that manufacturers are held responsible for covering the costs of clearing up litter from cigarette butts.

Whales: Meat

Andrea Jenkyns: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will ban the transit of whale meat through UK ports.

Mr Robert Goodwill: The transit of whale meat through UK and EU ports is subject to international trade rules. Leaving the EU will present us with the opportunity to review our position on this issue.

Whales: Scotland

Andrea Jenkyns: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to protect the population of Orcas off the coast of Scotland.

Mr Robert Goodwill: Protection of this particular population is a devolved issue. All cetaceans are fully protected in UK waters under the EU Habitats Directive, the UK Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, and through sectoral measures tackling specific threats, such as the bycatch mitigation measures implemented under EU Regulations (Regulation 812/2004).

Pets: Travel

Neil O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate he has made of how many and what proportion of cars travelling from the UK to (a) France and (b) the EU contain a pet animal.

David Rutley: The Government does not record data on how many or what proportion of cars travelling from the UK to France, or from the UK to the rest of the EU, contain a pet animal. Due to the nature of the border arrangements for cars travelling out of the UK, it would be very difficult to conduct an estimation of the proportion that are carrying a pet.

Agriculture

Neil O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what plans the Government has to support UK farmers in the event that the UK leaves the EU without a deal.

Mr Robert Goodwill: As any responsible Government would, we are preparing for the possibility of no deal, which is why we have contingency plans in place to minimise disruption for the food and farming sector as much as possible. We are in close contact with the farming unions and other farmer representatives across the UK. Alongside the publication of technical notices, we continue to work closely with farmers, businesses and trade associations across the food and drink sector, from farm to fork, to keep them informed of exit preparations. We have committed to the same funding for farm support until the end of this Parliament, whether the UK leaves with or without a deal. In a no deal scenario, the current EU Common Agricultural Policy legislation will be retained under the Withdrawal Act 2018 and modified through secondary legislation. This will provide a legal basis for its continuation until the passage of the Agriculture Bill. We have also already guaranteed that any projects where funding has been agreed before the end of 2020 will be funded for their full lifetime, including in a no deal scenario. The guarantee also means that the Government and the devolved administrations can continue to sign new projects after the UK leaves the EU during 2019 and 2020.

Fish: Consumption and Overseas Trade

Neil O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what (a) value and (b) proportion by value of the fish caught in UK waters is (i) consumed domestically, (ii) exported to non-UK EU member states and (iii) exported to the rest of the world; and what (A) value and (B) proportion by value of the fish consumed in the UK is (I) caught in UK waters, (II) imported from other EU member state and (III) imported from the rest of the world.

Mr Robert Goodwill: The average value of fish landed by UK and Other Member State vessels from the UK Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) each year is £1,184 million (~£1.2 billion), this represents 38.4% of the total value the UK and Other Member State fleets land from the Northeast Atlantic sea area. In 2017, the UK exported £1.9bn (460,000 tonnes) of fish and seafood products globally, with over 70% of exports to the EU. The UK is a net importer of fish, importing over 730,000 tonnes of fish worth £3.1bn, with the majority of imports originating outside of the EU. The Marine Management Organisation publishes trade analysis in their annual UK Sea Fisheries Statistics publication, which can be found at:https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/uk-sea-fisheries-annual-statistics-report-2017 These statistics include the outward movement of fish and seafood products produced by businesses in the UK, plus goods which, after importation to the UK, are then exported. The statistics include fish caught by foreign vessels and landed into the UK; fish caught by the UK fleet and landed into foreign ports are excluded. It is not possible to discern the origin of fish from UK trade statistics, or from this the proportion consumed in the UK originating from fish caught in UK waters.

Climate Change

Dr David Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the report of the Committee on Climate Change entitled,  Progress in preparing for climate change, published on 10 July, for what reasons good progress was not made in any of the 33 sectors assessed by that Committee on actions needed to manage climate change risks.

David Rutley: The Government welcomes the report by the Committee on Climate Change. We are committed to taking robust action to improve resilience to climate change, and will formally respond to the Committee’s detailed recommendations in October, in line with the timetable set out in the Climate Change Act.

Recreation Spaces

Mr Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the merits of increasing green spaces in the UK to reduce the effect of flash flooding.

Dr Thérèse Coffey: As set out in our 25 Year Environment Plan, this Government recognises the importance of green spaces for health and happiness as well as for environmental benefits such as sequestering carbon, absorbing noise, cleansing pollutants, absorbing surface water and reducing high temperatures. In the right place, using green spaces in towns and cities to help divert or store flood water can be beneficial, including using sustainable drainage systems such as permeable surfaces and ponds or natural flood management techniques in towns and cities as well as upstream. As we build more homes, preserving and creating green spaces in towns is more important than ever. We want to encourage local authorities to consider all flood management opportunities and developers to take into account all the benefits when deciding how much land to allocate as green space. To support this we have worked with colleagues in the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government to revise the National Planning Policy Framework to further encourage sustainable drainage systems, and published our Surface Water Management Action Plan which includes actions that will join up planning for surface water management and build local authority capacity. In addition, Natural England is developing a framework of national standards for green infrastructure in close consultation with stakeholders.

Office for Environmental Protection: Northern Ireland

Gavin Robinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to ensure that the Office of Environmental Protection will take account of Northern Ireland’s specific environmental requirements should its jurisdiction apply there.

Gavin Robinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether the Office of Environmental Protection will have a physical presence in Northern Ireland should it have jurisdiction there.

Gavin Robinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he will take to ensure Office of Environmental Protection staff have adequate knowledge and experience of Northern Ireland’s legislation and practices.

Dr Thérèse Coffey: Environmental policy is largely a devolved matter. Northern Ireland officials requested to make options available to ensure that environmental governance in Northern Ireland can be safeguarded after the UK’s departure from the EU. We are working in conjunction with officials in DAERA to ensure the forthcoming Environment Bill enables the Office for Environmental Protection (OEP) to provide effective oversight of the environment in Northern Ireland should the Executive in Northern Ireland agree to it. Executive officials’ agreement to extension of the Bill is on the basis of a default position that decisions on implementation will be left for returning Ministers and subject to the requisite Assembly scrutiny procedures. If a Northern Ireland executive decides to use the OEP in the future, it will then be for the OEP to work with the Executive to address any issues specific to the needs of Northern Ireland.

Office for Environmental Protection: Northern Ireland

Gavin Robinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he will take to ensure that (a) Northern Ireland is represented on the Office of Environmental Protection’s (OEP’s) Board and (b) that the specific needs of Northern Ireland are taken into account when the OEP’s budget and strategy is agreed.

Dr Thérèse Coffey: Environmental policy is largely a devolved matter. Northern Ireland officials requested to make options available to ensure that environmental governance in Northern Ireland can be safeguarded after the UK’s departure from the EU. We are working in conjunction with officials in DAERA to ensure the forthcoming Environment Bill enables the Office for Environmental Protection (OEP) to provide effective oversight of the environment in Northern Ireland should the Executive in Northern Ireland agree to it. Executive officials’ agreement to extension of the Bill is on the basis of a default position that decisions on implementation will be left for returning Ministers and subject to the requisite Assembly scrutiny procedures. If a Northern Ireland executive decides to use the OEP in the future, it will then be for the OEP to work with the Executive to address any issues specific to the needs of Northern Ireland.

Environment (Principles and Governance) Bill (Draft)

Gavin Robinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether his Department plans to add additional principles to those included in the Draft Environment (Principles and Governance) Bill 2018.

Dr Thérèse Coffey: No. We believe these principles are sufficient to ensure we achieve our vision of protecting the environment and leaving it in a better state than we found it.

Antibiotics: Drug Resistance

Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to monitor antibiotic resistant bugs in seagull faeces in the UK.

David Rutley: The Government conducts surveillance of antimicrobial resistance in animals and publishes the results annually on GOV.UK in the Veterinary Antibiotic Sales and Surveillance report. These surveillance programmes do not include wildlife.

Home Office

Agriculture: Working Conditions and Exploitation

Kerry McCarthy: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps the Government is taking in (a) the UK and (b) overseas to tackle (a) working conditions and (b) exploitation in the food supply chain.

Victoria Atkins: Under Section 54 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015, large businesses with a turnover of £36m or more are required to publish annual modern slavery statements detailing the steps they are taking to prevent modern slavery in their UK operations and global supply chains. The requirement applies to all sectors, including agriculture. The Government is committed to doing more and will shortly be launching a consultation to strengthen the transparency in supply chains legislation, making it harder for companies to avoid scrutiny.The Home Office regularly engages with businesses across a range of sectors to accelerate progress in tackling modern slavery in global supply chains.The Gangmasters Labour and Abuse Authority (GLAA) licenses UK businesses which provide workers to the farming, food processing and shellfish gathering sectors to make sure they meet the employment standards required by law; and carries out inspections and enforcement activity. The GLAA also partner with businesses such as Sainsbury’s to deliver training sessions to their suppliers, equipping them to better identify and manage risks in their supply chains.

Prosecutions

Philip Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the average length of time was between arrest and charge in each of the last five years.

Mr Nick Hurd: The Home Office does not centrally hold the information requested.

Bail

Philip Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people were on police bail in each of the last three years.

Mr Nick Hurd: The Home Office does not centrally hold the information requested.From April 2017 the Home Office requested information on a voluntary basis from police forces on the number of individuals released on pre-charge bail following arrest, broken down by bail length.Data received from 17 police forces has been published within the ‘Police powers and procedures, England and Wales’ statistical bulletin, for the 2017/18 financial year. These figures provide an incomplete picture and can be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/police-powers-and-procedures-england-and-wales-year-ending-31-march-2018Data on the number of individuals released on pre-charge bail following arrest, have been requested on a mandatory basis from April 2018, and are intended for publication in the next edition of the ‘Police powers and procedures, England and Wales’ statistical bulletin, due for release on 24 October 2019.The police retain the ability to use pre-charge bail where necessary and proportionate, including to protect witnesses and victims.

Crime and Police: Cambridgeshire

Ms Lisa Forbes: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what data his Department holds on (a) police force strength and (b) recorded crime in Cambridgeshire for each year since 2010.

Mr Nick Hurd: The Home Office collects and publishes information on the number of officers employed in each police force in England and Wales in the annual 'Police workforce, England and Wales' statistical bulletin, which can be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/police-workforce-england-and-walesThe Home Office also collects information on the number of Police Recorded Crime by Police Force Area in England and Wales, which is published quarterly and can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/police-recorded-crime-open-data-tables

Children: Exploitation

Mr Steve Reed: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether his Department plans to issue national guidance to local authorities on tackling child criminal exploitation through county lines.

Victoria Atkins: In July 2018 the Government published statutory guidance on inter-agency working to safeguard and promote the welfare of children. The ‘Working Together to Safeguard Children’ guidance is intended for and should be read and followed by frontline practitioners and strategic leaders in local authorities, together with other organisations and agencies that commission and provide services for children and families. The guidance specifically highlights the risk to children from exploitation by criminal gangs and organised crime groups such as county lines. It also makes clear that children who may be alleged perpetrators should also be assessed to understand the impact of contextual issues on their safety and welfare.The Government is committed to increasing awareness of county lines exploitation amongst those best placed to spot it and published guidance for frontline professionals in July 2017, which was reviewed and updated in September 2018, on how to identify potential victims of county lines and appropriate referral routes.

Children: Exploitation

Mr Steve Reed: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether his Department plans to create a statutory definition of child criminal exploitation.

Victoria Atkins: The Independent Review of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 considered the definition of exploitation under the Act and found it is sufficiently flexible to meet a range of new and emerging forms of modern slavery.The Government welcomes this finding and continues to work with the police and the Crown Prosecution Service to take full advantage of powers in the Modern Slavery Act. We note that there have been recent prosecutions under the Modern Slavery Act for cases of child criminal exploitation. The Government Response to the Independent Review was published on 9 July and is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/government-response-to-the-independent-review-of-the-modern-slavery-actIn addition, there is an existing, published definition of child criminal exploitation in the Serious Violence Strategy. The strategy is available here:https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/698009/serious-violence-strategy.pdf

Extradition: USA

Mr David Davis: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 2 July 2019 to Question 271379, how many people were extradited from the UK to the US for non-violent crimes in each year from 2003 to 2012.

Mr Nick Hurd: The following table provides the information requested: Total number of people extradited from the UK to the US for non-violent offences200362004520051120061420078200852009132010820116201212We have taken non-violent offences to include:FraudDrug related offencesTheftForgeryMoney launderingHandling stolen goodsObtaining property by deceptionTax evasionUnlicensed exporting of goodsObstruction of justiceBriberyRobberyAll figures are from local management information, and have not been quality assured to the level of published National Statistics As such they should be treated as provisional and therefore subject to change. The figures do not include Scotland, which deals with its own extradition cases.

Radicalism: Germany

Lyn Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will make an assessment of the accuracy of recent reports that the extreme right-wing Nordkreuz network in Germany (a) compiled a death list of tens of thousands of individuals, including the recently murdered politician Walter Lubke, (b) stockpiled weapons and ammunition, and sought to procure materials to enable rapid disposal of bodies and (c) includes individuals within the German police and military, some of whom have made use of their access to Government data to identify targets for terrorist activity; and if he will make a statement.

Mr Ben Wallace: The Government takes the threat from all forms of extremism seriously. We undertake a large number of assessments of the threat, including analysis of links between extremist groups overseas and those in the United Kingdom.

Security

Neil O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, which security tools and data systems the UK will no longer have access to in the event that the UK leaves the EU without a deal.

Mr Nick Hurd: The Government’s position remains that leaving with a deal, which includes ambitious internal security arrangements, is in the UK’s and EU’s best interests. If the UK leaves the EU without a deal, then we would cease to cooperate through the EU’s internal security tools and data systems upon exit.The Home Office continues to work closely with operational partners to ensure readiness for a range of possible exit scenarios in October, including no deal. We have been working intensively with these partners for some time to transition cooperation with EU Member States to alternative, non-EU mechanisms, should that be needed in a no deal scenario. In the security and law enforcement space, this would include making more use of Interpol, Council of Europe Conventions and other forms of cooperation, such as bilateral channels.

Sleeping Rough: Oxfordshire

Layla Moran: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many rough sleepers in (a) Oxfordshire and (b) Oxford West and Abingdon constituency have (i) had their data processed and (ii) been deported by his Department's Rough Sleeper Support Service.

Caroline Nokes: The Rough Sleeping Support Service does not undertake any enforcement action. It has an administrative role, conducting status checks, identifying cases for prioritisation and ensuring that other parts of the Home Office are able to provide assistance to those who require evidence of their lawful status or assistance in leaving the UK.

UK Visas and Immigration: Biometrics

Mr Gavin Shuker: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what criteria his Department uses to determine the locations in the UK where biometric information for visa or immigration applications can be provided.

Caroline Nokes: The majority of customers will be able to submit their biometrics and supporting information for their visa application via a UK Visa and Citizenship Application Service (UK VCAS) centre, which are run by Sopra Steria Ltd (SSL) on behalf of UK Visas & Immigration (UKVI). However, Individuals who have higher needs, may be vulnerable, or whose circumstances may be complex and would benefit from face to face interaction with the Home Office are directed to Service and Support Centres (SSC) where they will receive support with their application. The SSCs are all based in pre-existing locations which were previously used as premium service centres, which broadly align with the postal districts of our customers.There are currently six core UKVCAS service points and seven core SSC’s across the UK at which application submission services are offered. The SSCs are based in Belfast, Cardiff, Croydon, Glasgow, Liverpool, Sheffield and Solihull.SSL undertook market research to identify initial service locations for the UKVCAS service points; their research included the impact on customer travel time, cost and accessibility. Beyond that, SSL offer a range of enhanced services in a further 50 UKVCAS locations. These services enable customers to submit their biometric information (photo and fingerprints) and supporting evidence in one location. 62% of customers will, on average, have to travel less than 25 miles to visit a core service centre, with 78% travelling less than 50 miles. Appointments may be offered for individual customers and/or family groups to enrol their biometrics together.

Visas: Applications

Paul Blomfield: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 17 June 2019 to Question 263146 on Visas: Applications, if he will ensure that the processing of in-country visa services by Sopra Steria will not result in increased prices for visa services for (a) international students and staff at UK universities and (b) universities.

Caroline Nokes: The application fee for a visa or visa extension is paid to the Home Office and is not related to the service provided by Sopra Steria.As part of the application process in the UK individuals must enrol their biometrics at a UK Visa and Citizenship Application Service centre which are run by Sopra Steria.For the majority of applicants in the UK there are a variety of offerings for students and other employees at UK education institutions which include free appointments at core service points, access to enhanced service points and the premium lounge for a fee. Additionally, to help meet demand for the autumn increase in student applications a “Tier 4 Service Point” will also be offered by Sopra Steria for a fee. This cost of this is lower than the costs of an out of hours, enhanced service point or premium lounge appointments under the normal UKVCAS service and will save students the financial and logistical burden of travel.As part of our governance processes, we work closely with SSL to ensure that excessive charges are not imposed on UKVI customers. Whilst SSL may offer added value services to customers, these are optional and aim to enhance the customer experience.

Immigration Controls: Northern Ireland

Mr Gregory Campbell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people have been (a) charged and (b) convicted as a result of Operation Gull in Northern Ireland in the last two years.

Caroline Nokes: The Home Office does not publish statistics on request for Operation Gull.

Refugees: Children

Vernon Coaker: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what progress has been made on filling the 480 child refugee places in the Immigration Act 2016; and if he will make a statement.

Caroline Nokes: The Government is absolutely committed to transferring the specified number of 480 unaccompanied children under section 67 of the Immigration Act 2016 (Dubs Amendment) as soon as possible. Over 220 children were transferred to the UK under section 67 when the Calais camp was cleared in late 2016. Since then we have been making further progress with the three participating States – France, Greece, and Italy – to refer and transfer more eligible children to move closer to the commitment to transfer 480 children.The UK is at the forefront in protecting children affected by the migration crisis. Section 67 is one of a number of schemes that offer a safe and legal route to the UK for the most vulnerable refugees. In total, the UK provided protection to over 6,600 children in 2018, and 34,600 since the start of 2010, and in every year since 2016, the UK resettled more refugees from outside Europe than any other EU member state.

British Nationality: Children

Paul Farrelly: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of reducing child citizenship fees for children born or raised in the UK to avoid any future immigration complications.

Caroline Nokes: The Home Office keeps its fees for immigration and nationality under regular review and changes to individual charges need to be made with a view to maintaining the overall purpose of the fees and charging legislation.An assessment of the impact of all border, immigration and citizenship (BIC) fees was published as an associated document to the Immigration andNationality Fees (Regulations) 2018.The Home Office constantly strives to achieve the right balance between ensuring that individuals are able to obtain status in the UK and access appropriate services, without adding burden to the taxpayer.Applying for British nationality is not mandatory and many individuals who have settlement/ indefinite leave to remain (ILR) status choose not to apply. This is because, in addition to lawful permanent residence in the UK, a person with indefinite leave to remain has full access to the UK labour market, education and healthcare.

*No heading*

Stuart C. McDonald: What recent assessment he has made of the effect on asylum seekers of his Department's policy on the right to work.

Caroline Nokes: The Government fully appreciates that this is an important and complex issue which we need to consider in further detail.That is why the Home Secretary has committed to review the policy.We are continuing productive discussions with key partners, listening carefully to the arguments and considering the evidence put forward on this issue

*No heading*

Debbie Abrahams: What recent assessment he has made of trends in the level of reported disability hate crime.

Victoria Atkins: The latest official data indicates an increase in police recorded disability hate crime, which is mostly due to general police recording improvements.The latest Crime Survey for England and Wales indicates a downward trend in overall hate crime incidence over the past decade but any instance is one too many and we stand alongside all victims of this abhorrent crime.

*No heading*

Stephen Timms: What progress he has made on his review of the treatment of overseas students accused of cheating in the Test of English for International Communication between 2011 and 2014; and if he will make a statement.

Sajid Javid: Following my last update to the House and the publication of the National Audit Office report into this issue I have sought further advice from officials in my department about measures we can put in place for those who maintain their innocence.I intend to make a statement to the House this very soon.

Church Commissioners

George Bell

Frank Field: To ask the right hon. Member for Meriden, representing the Church Commissioners, pursuant to the Answer of 12 March 2019 to Question 227049 on George Bell, whether the £29,800 represents the full payment for all costs incurred by the church in its initial judgement on Bishop George Bell; and what proportion of that sum was used for costs for (a) lawyers and (b) damages.

Dame Caroline Spelman: The Church Commissioners have indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Cabinet Office

Writers: Self-employed

Chris Evans: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many people are self-employed as writers.

Chris Evans: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what estimate the Government has made of the number of people who rely partially on income from writing.

Kevin Foster: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.



UKSA Response
(PDF Document, 101.29 KB)

Cybercrime: Departmental Coordination

Jo Platt: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, which Minister or official is responsible for ensuring cross-governmental compliance with the Minimum Cyber Security Standard.

Mr David Lidington: I am accountable to Parliament for the National Cyber Security Strategy and the accompanying investment programme. I am also the lead Minister for the cyber resilience of the government sector.The Government Chief Security Officer (GCSO) leads the Government Security Function, which seeks to build the capacity and capabilities of security professionals across UK government departments, covering physical, human and information security.The GCSO is also Director General of the Government Security Group within the Cabinet Office, which is responsible for the oversight, coordination and delivery of protective security capabilities within all central government departments, their agencies and arms-length bodies.The responsibility for security, including risk management and policy implementation, sits with the Accounting Officer and the executive board of each department.

Department for International Trade

Department for International Trade: Overtime

Jon Trickett: To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what estimate he has made of the amount of unpaid overtime worked by staff in his Department in the last 24 months.

George Hollingbery: An error has been identified in the written answer given on 08 July 2019.The correct answer should have been:

This information is not centrally held. Line managers have a responsibility for ensuring that staff are not working excessive hours, and the department is compliant with the requirements of the Working Time Regulations 1998 in respect of civil servants' working hours. DIT is committed to supporting the wellbeing of all its members of staff and has appropriate policies to support this alongside a Departmental Health and Wellbeing Plan implemented in January 2019., The department has a Stress Policy that introduced the provision of Mental Health First Aiders who can provide a range of support to both employees and managers, including access to our Employee Counselling Service. In January 2019, the department launched the Health & Wellbeing Plan, which includes activity to train senior leaders in Wellbeing Confidence.which includes activity to train senior leaders in Wellbeing Confidence.

George Hollingbery: This information is not centrally held. Line managers have a responsibility for ensuring that staff are not working excessive hours, and the department is compliant with the requirements of the Working Time Regulations 1998 in respect of civil servants' working hours. DIT is committed to supporting the wellbeing of all its members of staff and has appropriate policies to support this alongside a Departmental Health and Wellbeing Plan implemented in January 2019., The department has a Stress Policy that introduced the provision of Mental Health First Aiders who can provide a range of support to both employees and managers, including access to our Employee Counselling Service. In January 2019, the department launched the Health & Wellbeing Plan, which includes activity to train senior leaders in Wellbeing Confidence.which includes activity to train senior leaders in Wellbeing Confidence.

EU External Trade

Neil O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, which of the EU's trade agreements with third countries has the Government not yet secured agreement with those countries to roll over.

George Hollingbery: In the event of the UK leaving the EU with a negotiated agreement, the UK and EU have agreed that existing international agreements would apply as they do today for the duration of the implementation period. Nevertheless, we have been working with our trading partners to have bilateral agreements ready in place for when we need them, whether that is after an Implementation Period or for a potential No Deal. We have signed or agreed in principle agreements with 32 countries. Total trade in 2018 between the UK and these countries accounted for 63% of the UK’s trade with all the countries with which the UK is seeking continuity in the event of a potential No Deal.1 That has moved from 28% since March. A regularly updated list of agreements signed is available on GOV.UK and alongside a list of remaining agreements.https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/existing-trade-agreements-if-the-uk-leaves-the-eu-without-a-deal/existing-trade-agreements-if-the-uk-leaves-the-eu-without-a-deal 1 The figures quoted above are based on total goods and services trade (imports and exports) with the UK, according to the most recent data (ONS, 2018). They cover 65 countries that are party to 35 agreements. These are the countries covered by existing EU agreements in force in 2018. This excludes Turkey, Andorra, San Marino which are part of customs unions with the EU, and Japan, as the Economic Partnership Agreement only came into force on 1st February 2019.

Trade Agreements: Canada

Mr Gregory Campbell: To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, whether his Department has set performance targets for the increase in bilateral trade between Canada and the UK through a comprehensive free trade agreement after the UK leaves the EU.

George Hollingbery: Once the UK has left the EU, we will have the opportunity to consider how we may strengthen the UK-Canada trading relationship. We do not currently have performance targets linked to how that might be achieved through a new comprehensive free trade agreement, since our priority remains working with Canada and businesses to seek as smooth a transition of the existing trading relationship as possible as we leave the EU. This includes the transition of CETA into a UK-Canada agreement. My Rt Hon. Friend the Secretary of State for International Trade gave an update on the status of these discussions at the International Trade Committee on 3 July.

Iron and Steel: Exports

Andrew Percy: To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what steps his Department is taking to support UK steel exports.

Graham Stuart: Officials within the Department for International Trade including UK Export Finance have met UK Steel and their members through the establishment of a steel export taskforce that was set up to discuss and explore how we can support UK based steel companies through international trade and the services we offer. Analysis suggests MENA, India and ASEAN are markets where demand for steel is growing strongly.

Arms Trade: Saudi Arabia

Wera Hobhouse: To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, whether representatives from Saudi Arabia (a) have been or (b) will be invited by the Government to send a delegation to the Defence and Security Equipment International exhibition taking place at the Excel Centre in London 10-13 September 2019.

Graham Stuart: Representatives of Saudi Arabia will be invited to DSEI 2019.

Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport

Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport: Data Protection

Paul Farrelly: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps his Department is taking to prepare for the consequences of data spillages.

Margot James: DCMS has clearly defined processes for identifying and managing data incidents. DCMS consumes a shared official tier platform delivered through a partnership arrangement with the Cabinet Office. As part of this partnership arrangement they ensure the confidentiality, integrity and availability of our core systems.

Tourism: Coastal Areas

Kevin Brennan: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if he will make an assessment of the potential effect on the tourism economy of bringing forward policies to enable children who have never visited the seaside to do so on holiday.

Rebecca Pow: As part of the recently launched Tourism Sector Deal, the Government committed to making the UK Europe’s most accessible tourism destination by 2025. As we develop our policies in this area, we will consider areas such as this.

National Gallery: Conditions of Employment

Helen Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what estimate he has made of the cost to the public purse of employment tribunal decision, Ms A Braine and others v The National Gallery: 2201625/2018.

Helen Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment he has made of the extent of (a) poor employment practice and (b) insecure work at publicly funded cultural institutions.

Helen Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment he has made of the effect of the employment tribunal decision, Ms A Braine and others v The National Gallery: 2201625/2018 on other publicly-funded cultural institutions.

Helen Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps he is taking to tackle (a) reports of poor employment practices, (b) insecure work and (c) the gig economy within publicly-funded cultural institutions.

Rebecca Pow: Following the decision of the Employment Tribunal, the National Gallery paid a total of £158,000 (inclusive of VAT) in backdated holiday pay to those individuals who were found by the Tribunal to have had ‘worker’ status while providing education services for the Gallery. In common with all publicly funded cultural institutions, the National Gallery operates independently and at arm’s length from Government. Arm’s Length Bodies are required to adhere to all relevant employment law, but their individual staffing structures and contractual arrangements are decisions to be taken solely by the gallery’s executive and trustees. I understand, however, that the National Gallery disputes the way in which aspects of this case have been characterised, including the notion that the employment tribunal was a test case for the ‘gig economy’ in the arts. More broadly, the 2017 Mendoza Review of Museums in England considered in detail the nature of employment in the museums sector; the Review Team found no evidence of widespread poor practice or insecure employment in the museums sector.

Television: Licensing

Mr Laurence Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if he will hold further discussions with the BBC to ensure that free TV licences are provided to all people over the age of 75; and if he will make a statement.

Jeremy Wright: I made a statement to the House on 11 June 2019, and spoke on the matter at Oral Questions on 04 July 2019. The Government has expressed its disappointment with the BBC’s decision for taking the most narrowly focused review option. Since the BBC took its decision, I have met with the Chairman of the BBC Board and the Director-General of the BBC and I have asked them to do more to help the most vulnerable groups affected by the decision.

NHS: Amazon

Tom Watson: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care in advance of the decision to use of Amazon Alexa in the NHS; and what assessment he has made on the implications for data and privacy of the use of that product.

Margot James: The Government takes the protection of personal data and the right to privacy extremely seriously. Ministers have not discussed this specific agreement. It is up to each department to make sure they are complying with our data protection legislation. The greater the sensitivity of the data, the greater the care that needs to be taken. For example, all organisations need to ensure there is a lawful basis for processing the data, design new systems with data protection principles in mind and consult the Information Commissioner where appropriate. As part of this agreement, no patient data held by NHS bodies is being shared with Amazon. The agreement is clear that Amazon will not share information with third parties, nor is it going to sell products, make product recommendations or build a health profile on users.